


NFWMB

by CorvidExoskeleton



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Drug Use, F/M, Found Family, I wasn't kidding when I said slow burn, Not Canon Compliant, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, Unreliable Narrator, Use of needles, a shocking amount of swearing, alcohol use, ill add tags as i update, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2020-12-24 17:01:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 159,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21102896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorvidExoskeleton/pseuds/CorvidExoskeleton
Summary: A Krieg/Maya slowburn fic I started on a whim that turned into an entire Borderlands 2 rewriteNote: Next chapter will take some time, as life is currently very very stressful. Please bear with me





	1. Krom's Canyon

**Author's Note:**

> Krieg's having a really shitty time

Time was a difficult thing to parse on a place like Pandora. Maybe it was the long days that lasted an eternity as the sun bore down on him until his brain turned to jelly. Maybe it was the barren wastelands that stretched on forever with nothing between him and death except for a couple of skags and some dirt. Maybe it was the isolation; most of the colonial settlements had long been abandoned or destroyed, along with their inhabitants, leaving behind only the desiccated bones of civilization and the empty promise of a better life. 

Maybe it was the way his mind refused to function properly, always playing tricks on him as he heard whispering somewhere just behind him. There were times when he lost entire days, entire _Pandoran_ _days,_ blacking out in the middle of a fight only to wake up dozens of miles away and covered in who-knows-what. But how did he even know he’d lost entire days when he couldn’t even tell the time? He knew that one daytime cycle on that hellhole lasted somewhere between three to four 24-hour days, with the nighttime cycles lasting just as long and twice as cold. How did he know that? Where did he learn it? He couldn’t remember. It was just some useless nugget of trivia left over from back when his head was still screwed on straight. 

It didn’t matter, either way. Time passed the same there as it did anywhere else, and it wasn't like he really _needed_ to be aware of how much had passed. Though he did often feel like there was something he was supposed to be doing… 

In any case, it must’ve been well into the daytime cycle when Krieg woke up. He was laying on the floor of an empty skag den, thick with their rotten stench and the gnawed bones of their prey. He’d been making his way through some hot-ass canyon for some time, having accidentally lost his footing on a cliff and slid down the rocky slope to the bottom. Not exactly his finest hour, to be sure, but at least there hadn’t been anyone around to watch. No one living, anyways. After recovering from his tumble, he picked a direction and started walking, hoping that eventually he’d find a way out that didn’t require climbing the goddamned cliffs. Man, did he hate rock climbing. 

It had been night when he fell, and an entire daytime cycle since then when he found the place, exhausted and ready to pass out. The skags had been a welcoming sight to his starving body, the hunger in his stomach roaring and clawing its way out of him like the fire under his skin. For once, he found he didn’t care if the big guy ripped them apart and ate them raw, their hot blood still pumping through the meat as he hacked their corpses open with his axe, pausing only long enough to rip the mask from his face.

God, he was always so_ hungry _ . Krieg didn’t _ think _ his appetite was always that voracious, but it could’ve just been a side effect of slowly starving to death. He halfheartedly tried to remember, not that the memory would do him any good. 

The other guy, the other personality that Krieg shared his mind and body with, reveled in the blood and carnage, delighting in every opportunity to kill and drench himself with gore, and he was practically giddy as he sunk their teeth into the slick flesh, greedily tearing large bites out of the hunk he held in his hands. Krieg didn’t really share his sentiments, preferring to hold onto the vague remnants of morals and manners he’d once held from a life he couldn’t recall, always slipping just outside of his reach. 

Once he’d finished devouring the skags, or, at least, the one’s not veined with the purple of slag, Krieg wiped some of the blood from his face and retrieved the mask, then wedged himself into the den they’d poured from. It was a tight fit, but he managed to get his shoulders through with a bit of wriggling. The inside of the den was relatively spacious, allowing him enough room to stretch out along the floor, but he was unable to stand completely upright. 

If he was honest, a skag den really was not the most comfortable place to sleep. Krieg was used to sleeping on the stony ground of Pandora, or perched in some crevasse, but skag dens.... Ugh. They were among the worst places he’d had the misfortune of laying in, always littered with fragmented bones and chunks of the plating skags grow over their skin, not to mention they dug their dens out with their claws and bile, making the floors uneven and sticky. And the _ smell _… it was something else. But it was better than leaving himself exposed out in the open. 

Sunlight shone through the den’s entrance, casting a small patch of light onto his sternum. He didn’t exactly sleep very well at the best of times, and the night in the den, he’d tossed and turned for hours, his brain refusing to shut down as it threw wave after wave of nightmarish dreams at him. He was still so _ tired. _The big guy blearily cracked his eyes open and rubbed from gunk from them, along with some of the flaking blood splattering him, before rolling onto his side to try and go back to sleep. 

Krieg tried to recall the dream he’d awoken from; flashes of a life before he’d come to Pandora, muddled by the passage of time and the purple haze of pain that blanketed his memory. There was something he was supposed to be doing, someone he was supposed to be looking for, someone important to him, a name he heard being cried. What was it… what was it… what was it… G… Giorno? No… George? No. Ga… Gabby? No. Gage? No. Gr… Grayson…? No, that wasn’t right. Gray… Gray… Gray... It was definitely a G………… Grace. It was Grace. The voice of his past was calling out for someone named Grace, but who was Grace? Who had he heard crying out for Grace? Was it him? Or someone else? 

He couldn’t tell how much of the memories he recalled were real and how much had been distorted by the poison in his blood, but that felt real. Real enough, at least. Oh god, how he hoped he had finally grasped onto something real. He hoped it was something he could keep holding onto, something he could keep that the other guy would never be able to take like he’d taken everything else. His body, his voice, his memories, his own _ mind _, all of it had been ripped away from him. 

Krieg was mildly surprised, but relieved that the other guy hadn’t tried to take that small victory away from him just yet. He supposed it was because of the sorry state they were in; exhausted to the point of collapse, dehydrated from the desert heat, the constant hunger from never having enough to eat, the seemingly endless stare of the sun beating down on him day in and day out. 

He needed to get away, to get out of the canyon and leave. He couldn’t go back the way he came, had to keep going north and escape to where they would never find him, where no one would ever think to look for someone like him. There was nothing for him further south, only the source of his relentless phantom pains and night terrors, the source of the slag that made into a monster. 

The floor of the skag den was relatively cool compared to the rest of the canyon, all hot stone and dry dirt, and so he laid there for some time, listening to the big guy mutter about the insufferable heat and their inability to sleep more. Any hope of going back to sleep seemed to have left them in the dust, so Krieg instead turned his thoughts to food. 

_ Hey, big guy, I don’t think we’ll get any more rest here. Let’s go find some skags to kill and get some food in us. _

The other guy let out a long groan as he pushed himself into a seated position, dragging a hand down his face. Flecks of dried blood stuck to the grimy bandages as he pulled his hand away. Krieg pulled the mask back on, then crawled out of the den. Now that he was outside again, he was able to stand up straight, taking a moment to stretch. The muscles in his back felt tight and sore, his atrocious sleeping habits no doubt playing a major hand in it. They burned as he stretched his arms up and around and rolled his shoulders. He felt like making a smart quip about the dangers of getting old, but he had no idea how old he actually was. 

And so he set off down the canyon, gripping his axe as he searched for some prey. 

It wasn’t long before Krieg started to see telltale signs of the beasts. As he crested a particularly large boulder blocking the path, he could see the distinctive gouges left in the ground from their claws. Dropping to the earth, he kneeled down to closer inspect the tracks; it must’ve been an entire pack, and judging from the corrosive bile soaking into the dirt, there were a few spitters among them. 

Careful not to make any noise, he slowly crept along the canyon floor, following the trail through the winding tunnels and alleys. After another hour or so, he finally spotted the first of the skags: a lone, horned beast of a spitter with a grungy mane of fur and armor plating. It was about 10 meters away from the tunnel he was in, its feet planted firmly in a patch of light as it stood guard for the rest of the pack. A line of bile dripped from its ugly jaws onto the stone. 

For a few seconds, Krieg didn’t move, just stared at the skag as he crouched behind a rock. He was worried that the big guy would just rush in the second he found it and go for the kill, but he felt some confliction from him. The exhaustion was wearing on them, and the soreness in his back and shoulders still persisted. The big guy leaned against the rock, back pressed against the stone as Krieg waited for him to make a decision. 

Having finally, apparently, decided what to do, he looked around at the area surrounding him and the skag, then backtracked a bit, searching for a spot he’d seen earlier. There it was, a ledge, leading to the top of the tunnel he’d spotted the skag from.

The climb up was tricky; he didn’t really have a holster for his axe, and the ledge looked to be around four or five meters in height. Krieg considered tossing his axe up to the top, but that would certainly alert the spitter, and in turn all the other skags nearby, or he could take his chances of killing the skag head on, which also ran the risk of alerting it and the others, along with ending in him getting mauled by a pack of starving animals.

Instead, he settled for shoving the handle of the buzz-axe through the leather harness around his shoulders. The wrapped wood handle smacked awkwardly between his shoulder blades, and the cold metal of the saw-blade pressed into the back of his head as he desperately held onto the brownish-orange stone. It took several grueling minutes of scrabbling, but eventually he hauled himself over the top of the ledge with a grunt. 

Krieg snuck along back towards the skag, one hand pressed to the stone while the other retrieved the axe. He could see it now, just over the edge, about eight meters ahead of him. There was no wind in the canyon, and for once, Krieg was glad for it. He slowly moved into position, lifting his arm above his head as he waited for the prime opportunity to throw. The skag turn in his direction, opening its jaws wide as it proceeded to vomit onto the dirt. He lined up the shot and let the axe fly. It flew end over end several times before the blade sunk into the skag with a loud thunk, spinning as it dug through the skin and plating and into its brain. The skag stood for several seconds as blood spilled from its mouth before collapsing to the ground, dead. 

_ Good job, big guy _. 

He climbed back down to where the dead skag lay, planting a boot onto its head to pull the axe out. Carving the skag meat into several large pieces, he carefully inspected it for slag poisoning. It was a routine he’d developed during his time in the Pandoran wilderness, making sure his prey wasn’t sick with the nasty, purple tendrils that had put him into mess he was in. 

He had accidentally eaten a small amount of slag infecting a chunk of varkid meat not long after he’d escaped his captors. Once his stomach acid broke down the meat and began ingesting it, Krieg had gone into a seizure-like fit that lasted for what felt like an eternity. He’d spent nearly an entire Pandoran day on the floor of a cave after the seizing subsided, curled into the fetal position, dry heaving and convulsing involuntarily, desperately trying to keep himself from vomiting blood after he emptied the contents of his stomach. The pain had been blinding, like lava being shot through all of his nerves at once. After that… well, it was safe to say that he was quite thorough when checking his prey. 

Right as he was about to declare the meat safe, Krieg spotted a thin vein, just barely visible, colored that hideous purple. When he pointed it out to the other guy, he simply threw the meat back towards the skag’s corpse, snarling, “I _ love _to wait for my meals…” the frustration obvious in his voice. Nevertheless, he felt a slight tinge of excitement at the prospect of continuing the hunt. 

It was tedious work, and by the time Krieg found clean meat, his stomach was twisting itself into knots. He’d stalked three more skags through the canyon, but each of them had had the same purple discoloration in them. The fifth one had been the winner, a hulking bastard as far as skags went that stood almost as tall as Krieg. It had been too big for him to kill with one throw, so once Krieg threw his axe into its filthy mouth, he sprinted forward and climbed onto its back while it choked on spinning metal. As he clung to its disgusting back, he broke one of its twisted horns off and stabbed it through an eye and into its brain, jumping off as it fell to the ground.

As happy as he was that he’d finally found something edible, Krieg knew he wouldn’t last long if he kept it up; his diet was already severely lacking in necessary nutrients, not to mention that potable water was a rarity, and he was really walking the line by shoveling raw meat down his throat every chance he got. Sure, he hadn’t exactly been _ healthy _ when he broke free, but he wasn’t _ that _bad. 

_ We’re going to get sick if we keep eating raw meat. We should at least try to cook it first. _

The big guy groaned and grunted, staring at the meat. He knew that Krieg was right, but he _ really _ didn’t want to do anything he said. “RRGH! The bloody shower of victory is best taken hot!” He howled, clearly preferring the eat the skag fresh. 

_ You don’t have to cook it all the way through, you can still have it bloody and rare. _

Although it took several moments of him-hawing, the big guy eventually relented, surprising Krieg once again. They must have been more exhausted than he thought if his alter ego was being so lenient; he was actually _ listening _to him. Maybe he had a chance, after all.

He made a fire with the other skag corpses and whatever dry plant life he could scavenge, spearing the meat onto a long, thin, sharp bone bleached white by the sun, and held it over the fire. When it was cooked enough, he sprinkled crushed bits of bladegrass leaves over the top. 

As he pulled the meat off the fire, Krieg whipped his head around, checking every wall and corner he could for enemies or, god forbid, someone who would see his face. 

_ It’s ok, there’s no one around. We’re at the bottom of some canyon in the middle of nowhere. Nobody would ever be stupid enough to come down here. Nobody except for us, at least. _

He pulled the mask to the side. The meat was pretty rare, but still good; the bladegrass added a bit of extra flavor that tasted almost like a cross between basil and nutmeg. As he sunk his teeth into the bloody, juicy skag steak, he was reminded of a time when cooking was the norm. He loved cooking for her, loved to hear her delighted little cries as he set a heaping plate in front of her. She always dug in with gusto, getting food all over her adorable cheeks. “When are you coming home?” she’d asked him, too many times to count.

**_ Soon, Schatzi _ _ , I promise. _**

** _ I love you. _ **

The other guy growled menacingly, smacking his head with a palm and forcing it down, back underneath the ocean of slag. 

What was he thinking about again?

Damn it! How many times was this asshole piloting his body going to keep doing this? Why didn’t he want him to remember? What was he keeping down? Was it really so bad? Every time Krieg felt like he’d finally connected some of the pieces, they turned to ash in his hands. His wretched, scarred, mutated hands, stained with the history of a life buried underneath the blood and violence and slag, buried so deep he could never wash it off. 

Certainly they weren’t always like that. 

…Right? 

A heavy wave of nostalgia and longing for old comforts he couldn’t recall pulled him under, while the other guy simply continued the feast. Once the cooked piece was gone, he tossed the bone into the fire and cut a few more steaks from the skag, immediately tearing into them despite Krieg’s protests. He felt a sick glee from the other guy as warm blood dripped down his chin and hands. 

After he’d eaten his fill, Krieg set back out to continue his search, wandering down the towering corridors for another hour or so before he stumbled upon a small stream. It wasn’t much, just a trickle of muddy water in a dried up bed, cutting horizontally across his path forward to create yet more corridors. The way ahead didn’t seem promising, so he decided to follow the water upstream, hoping to find the source, or at least a way out. 

The stream led him steadily upwards, and eventually it brought him to a small pool of water, tucked away in an oddly room-like section of the canyon. With the walls of the canyon shortening, the sun shone directly over the pool. It was fed by a waterfall tumbling over a small ledge, created by fallen stones and years of built-up dirt blocking the stream’s path. The pool was surprisingly clear, he could see down to the bottom several feet below, and as Krieg crouched to dip his fingers in, he found that it was pleasantly cool as well. It was strange, the pool seemed like it had been dug out by someone, dropping down to the bottom on his side and sloping down on the other, but there was no sign of civilization in the canyon or the use of technology. Leaning forward, he pushed the mask up a bit and cupped his hands to take a drink or two or nine. 

_ We should wash some of the blood off before we keep going. Don’t want the scent to attract unwanted attention. _

The other guy grumbled as he stared at the surface, “Let the foolish little pus pinatas chase me, I’ll feed them their own liver and bask in their symphonic agony.”

_ Remember what happened the last time we let that play out? _

Krieg mentally shuddered as he thought back, remembering how he’d drenched himself from head to toe in thresher blood, draping a severed tentacle around his shoulders like a fleshy scarf. It only took a few hours in the sun for it to attract a swarm of rakks. They’d descended like locusts, and while he’d managed to kill them, a particularly nasty one dug its entire beak into his shoulder, trying to rip his arm off. If it weren’t for his creepy weird healing, he probably would’ve died from either blood loss or infection. It helped that he’d caught on fire not long after, effectively cauterizing the wound. 

The other guy apparently remembered as well. He might’ve been an unapologetic masochist, but he didn’t exactly like the idea of it happening again. He grunted and whined, but he begrudgingly complied with his suggestion. 

_ Thank you. _

Standing, he looked around for enemies, then began removing his gear. 

He started with the mask, wincing in pain as direct sunlight hit his previously covered eye, then the leather harness, followed by the metal gauntlet around his forearm. The bandages came next, slowly unwrapping his arms, trying to ignore the purple scarring veining across his skin. He tried to avoid thinking too much about the events surrounding their acquisition. 

Having exposed his arms, he kneeled down and removed the steel boots. They were always a major pain to take off, considering they weren’t actually made to be worn like normal shoes. The bullymong fur he lined the sides with was starting to degrade and smell, indicating he’d need to find something else to use as makeshift socks. 

The boots were set aside, and he removed the contents of his pants, along with the belt. He pulled the comb from his back pocket and set it next to the mask. Why did he still have it? He didn't exactly _need_ it. 

As he pondered the question, another voice rose to speak in his ear.

** _ Can you braid my hair? _ **

Another smack to the head, another piece of the puzzle gone like dust in the wind. 

Krieg unbuttoned and removed the orange pants, marveling at how well they’d held up. He’d been wearing them for a while, ever since the pair he’d escaped in got ripped to shreds. Now _ that _ was an eventful couple of days. 

_ It’s a wonder they even fit. Now, only one thing left. _

He raised a hand to tug at the necklace around his throat, but stopped before he could touch it. Why the hesitation? It was just a necklace, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to remove it. The other guy normally didn’t hesitate, yet his hand twitched and shook when he tried to touch the metal pendant. 

There had to be a reason why. He _ knew _there was a reason, but the answer fluttered just outside of his grasp, slipping through his fingers like smoke, tantalizing him with half-remembered whispers of a forgotten promise to the dead. 

Was it dead? 

Or just lost?

Krieg let the necklace be. 

Sitting on the edge of the pool, he dangled his legs in the water and washed his gear. His pants had acquired several new stains from the skags he’d all but rolled in, not to mention he’d been sweating like a goddamn horse in the desert heat; the bottom of the canyon might’ve been cooler than up top, but he still thought he’d catch fire at any moment. And that was _ winter _ weather. There were several more… questionable stains from the previous owner of the pants, but he _ really _ didn’t want to think about that. 

The bandages were also in surprisingly good shape, all things considered. How in the hell had they managed to last longer than his _ pants? _ How had they never burned? They should’ve been ash before he was out of Hyperion's sight. Maybe they’d been treated to be fire-resistant? There wasn’t a single burn mark on them, just innumerable blood and slag stains. He probably didn’t even need them anymore, since his arm had long since healed up, but the big guy seemed attached to them. 

“A gift from our mother for being such a _ fantastic _blood boy.” He muttered, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. 

The boots, gauntlet, and harness were easy to clean, as he only needed to rinse the dried blood from the metal and leather. He didn’t dare get the inside of the boots wet, not wanting to get the fur inside soaked and have to deal with damp, itchy feet for the hours it took them to dry. 

The mask was a bit more tricky to clean; the respirator was composed of many small parts that were very easy to lose, but he had to completely take it apart to get it clean. He needed to be careful not to get the leather too wet, lest it swell up again. 

Once the mask was back to its original white and orange and put back together, he set it aside and reached for his axe. Heavy and curved, it was unlike the buzz-axes that he’d seen other sun-scrambled bastards wielding. Where did he even get it? He couldn’t remember, despite the memory having been relatively recent. Or was it? He pulled the head apart and dislodged multiple dried bits of flesh, flicking them over his shoulders onto the rocks behind him. 

Having finally cleaned at least most of his gear, Krieg set everything side by side to dry in the sun, then lowered himself into the pool. It just barely reached his waist at its deepest. Compared to the dry heat he’d been under for days, the water felt incredible on his skin, soothing the nasty sunburn and tamping down and smothering the fire that threatened to engulf him. 

Staring at the light reflecting off the water, he cleaned away the accumulated layers of dirt, blood, and sweat, wandering hands discovering scars he wasn’t even aware he had. 

_ Just how recent are some of these? _

Did he get them from the preserve, or were they already there from a time before? Were they remnants of lost life? Or did he just never notice when he acquired new scars? Krieg didn't know, and he wasn't sure which was more terrifying. 

Scrubbing the grime away from his arms, he gently scratched at the marks left in his skin from the bandages. It felt good to have them off for once, to not have the thick fabric grazing against the sensitive scarring underneath. At least he didn’t have any arm hair left for the bandages to pull on. Or any other hair, for that matter. 

It seemed a little odd to him, that even now, so long after escaping the preserve, his hair hadn’t grown back. How did he even lose it in the first place? Was it the slag? That seemed likely. He vaguely recalled feeling a bit of fuzz up top a few weeks prior, but if it was there before, it wasn’t anymore. For a moment, he thought he might miss having a bit of scruff, but was that was, of course, assuming he’d had any to begin with. Was it just wishful thinking? More dreams left behind by a dead man? Maybe his constant spontaneous igniting was burning it all off. The flames always encompassed his entire body, whether it was visible or not, the fire rising from under his skin like pent up energy leaking from his pores. He thought it could be worth trying to keep the fire down just to see, but that would only work if the other guy wanted to as well.

“Burn me to a crisp, I _ love _ the flickering dance of the orange Ladies on my Meat.” 

Guess not. 

Slowly, he made his way from his arms to his chest, and up to his neck, stopping when he touched the necklace again. Krieg gently caressed the leather strips, wiping away the crusted blood, part of him half lost in the nostalgia of what he couldn't remember. What the big guy wouldn't let him remember.

He pinched the pendant between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing blood out of the grooves in the metal. There was something almost tender about the way he held the necklace. Krieg wondered what it was that the other guy knew about it. It had to be something important to him, but of course he wouldn't share what it was. 

A splash of water shook him from his reverie, kneeling down to bring the water level up as he washed his head and face. Was it as scarred as the rest of him? He felt scar tissue, but couldn't tell how bad it was. Maybe if he saw his face, he would be able to figure out why his right eye hurt every time he uncovered the damn thing. 

He stood and looked down at the surface of the water, but it was so clear that he couldn't see his reflection, and even if it he could, there was too much disturbance from the stream trickling in.

_ Heh. So much a stranger in my own body that I can’t remember what my own face looks like. _

Would he be able to recognize himself even if he could remember? 

So clear… so clean… the pool sparkled as sunlight glinted off it, reflecting spears of light through his right eye and into his mind, piercing the cloudy veil that blinded and separated Krieg from himself. Was it really so bad that he couldn’t remember? Did it matter? The light stung, but it paled in comparison to the shocks of electricity that ran through his arms, his nerves set alight by slag and scalpels. 

Krieg cupped some of the crystalline water in his hands, raising them up to slowly pour it down over his uplifted face, a baptism to cleanse the sin from his heretical body. Try as he might, God knew he could never really wash the blood from his soul, could never wash away the poison that coated his veins. He was a monster, then and forever. And a monster like him had no right to be in a fountain of such purity, stagnating it with his filth.

He stood there for several minutes, arms hanging by his sides, face lifted to the sky, eyes shut as the heat of the sun basked over him. It had been a long time since he’d felt its warmth on his cheeks. It was… nice.

At some point, Krieg finally dragged himself out, climbing onto a large, flat boulder next to the pool. The stone was hot from baking all day, and when he laid across it, the aching muscles in his back and shoulders began to relax as heat seeped into them. It was a far cry from a real bed, but it was leagues better than the skag den, to be sure. 

Oh, Christ, was he tired. He was hoping the dip might wake him up more, but it hadn’t. 

_ We could always take a nap right here while our stuff dries. Not like there’s anything for us to do in the meantime. _

Krieg felt hesitation from the other guy, some worry that they’d get attacked in their sleep. 

“Nnnngh, a bloody claw in the dark.”

_ If anything or anyone sneaks up on us, I think the sight of a giant, mutated, pissed off, naked, psychotic man would be enough to scare anyone. It’ll be alright. We can afford to get some sleep. _

That seemed to be good enough for him. Krieg closed his eyes, the daylight fading as he sunk into a deep sleep.


	2. Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krieg has a really shitty time pt. 2

It was some time before Krieg woke again. As he pushed himself into a seated position, he vaguely wondered how long it had been. Not that it would matter, anyways, the days were already too damn long. The sun had barely moved, but that little movement told him it had been a few hours. 

_ See? I told you we would be alright. Looks like we managed to get some semi-decent shut-eye, too. _

The dreams had still been there, circling his brain like vultures, but they weren’t as bad, more like a confusing swamp of feelings. His back still ached, but he wasn’t as tired anymore, which he considered the real victory. 

Slowly, clumsily, he redressed, almost falling over as he dragged the pants past his knees, yanking them up with a wince of discomfort. Perhaps one day he’d find a pair of pants that fit right. 

Once he was ready, Krieg continued his trek upstream. As he made his way out of the canyon, it opened up into a twisting maze of tall, jagged rocks and abandoned spiderant hills. Like the canyon’s high walls, it was a veritable labyrinth with no end in sight, but he lamented that he had no mythical string to help guide him out, no lifeline for him to follow to freedom. Perhaps there were some spiderants left that would be willing to donate… 

The other guy was on high alert now that they were fully awake, snapping his head towards every little noise he heard, growling as he wondered if the monster of the labyrinth was possibly with him. Where was the wretched Minotaur, born from man and animal? Was it stalking him, biding its time and waiting for a chance to strike? 

“I’ll show you a monster-man! I’ll light my meat sleeves aflame and burn the stars from the sky! Then we’ll see who the _ real _ beast is!” He shouted at the unending gray pillars. Deep down, Krieg had a sneaking suspicion it was him, that he was the minotaur stalking through the labyrinth, couldn't fathom there being a beast worse than him. He was the real monster, ruled by rage and the desire to kill. All he had to do was let go of the reins.

The stony forest stretched on, and he just kept on walking, until the sun dipped below the horizon and Pandora slipped into night, and still he kept walking. What few spiderants remained in the area fled back into their dens as he stalked by; they were so small and pitiful that the big guy didn’t even bother trying to give them chase. 

Eventually, as the rocky spires thinned and the landscape turned into desert, he stumbled upon the remains of what looked like a small town. Although his exposed eye had long since adjusted to the gloom, it was an uncharacteristically dark night for Pandora, leaving him unable to see much as he entered through the broken gate. 

Quietly moving through, Krieg searched the makeshift buildings for any signs of life. The big guy let out a whine of disappointment when they found the place deserted. He’d been hoping to find somebody, anybody, but while Krieg wanted help, the other guy just wanted to release some of his pent-up aggression; it had been a while since he’d last seen another living person, and he could tell the other guy was just _ itching _to kill someone. 

The last building he searched was an old house, the wooden door hanging off its hinges. He pushed it aside and found himself in the remains of a living room. Picking his way over ruined furniture and trash, he made his way up crumbling stairs and down a pitch black hallway, running his knuckles along the wall and he walked. Feeling a door frame, Krieg ran his hand along the splintering wood until he found the handle, turning it and opening up what looked like a bedroom. 

There was a window on the wall across from him, the torn curtains lightly fluttering to reveal broken glass. The faint light from the stars illuminated a cot shoved into a corner with only a thin, well-used pillow on it. 

_ Well, it’s better than nothin’ , I guess. _

Closing the door behind him, Krieg walked over and cautiously sat on the cot, testing to make sure it wouldn’t collapse under his weight. The metal frame squealed, but held firm. Satisfied, he set his mask and axe against the wall and laid down, settling onto his back. 

\------------

Daytime, like consciousness, came all too soon. Krieg awoke to find himself sprawled out on the floor next to the cot. Had he woken up in the night? He thought that he might have, but couldn't quite recall. Was it another dream? More night terrors? It wasn't uncommon, but usually he remembered waking up, if not the dreams themselves. 

Must've been something really horrific if the other guy blocked out both the memory of waking up _ and _the dream. 

But why was his face sticking to the tile? He could feel dried streaks running down his face. Wait… were those from tears? Had he been _ crying _? What could have possibly been so bad to make the other guy cry like that? The other guy never cried. 

Was it a blessing or a curse that he couldn't remember? Krieg wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know. 

If only he could remember… if he could just manage to do that, then he might better understand what he was doing, what the _ other guy _ was doing. The voices groped at the back of his skull, hissing unintelligible secrets he couldn't decode.

** _Uoy ot siht did eh. _ **

** _Reh koot yeht. _ **

What did it all mean? He thought if the words weren't so jumbled, he might be able to make out what they were saying, might get a clue as to what his mysterious night terrors were. 

The big guy pushed himself onto his knees, growling low in his throat as he raked blunted nails up and down his shoulders and across his chest. He seemed on edge about something. Maybe he was upset about whatever that dream was. They shared the same brain, as much as they both hated it, it would make sense for some of their emotions and thoughts to leak into each other. 

_ Are you alright? _

More growling. "The Little Man can mind his own business."

_ This affects both of us, you know. You don't have to deal with it on your own. I'm always here if you want to talk about it. I can guarantee I’ll understand more than anyone else. _

"NO." The big guy was angry now, frustrated with Krieg's attempts at conversation. Fingers pressed into his shoulders, but not hard enough to draw blood. Not yet, at least. 

_ Fine, then, let's see what we can find here. _

Krieg wanted to try and distract him, keep his self-destructive tendencies from escalating. He always got like that when he was angry at Krieg. 

He stood and shuffled over to retrieve the mask and axe.

Stepping out into the hallway, Krieg saw that the house interior was a disgusting shade of yellow, the wallpaper peeling away to reveal years of built-up filth and insulation. The stairs down were to his left, but the ceiling had collapsed in to his right, blocking the rest of the rooms. They didn’t matter, anyways, there never was anything left in ruined homes besides trash and dirt. 

The stairs led him back down into a small living room, adorned with the same yellow wallpaper and filled with broken furniture. Bullet holes splattered the walls and floor, and behind an overturned couch, Krieg saw a rotting hand in a puddle of long-dried blood. He walked to the door at the other side of the room, pausing to glance and snarl at the dead bandit the hand belonged to. 

_Suits him right._

Past the door was the remains of a kitchen, the counters and appliances riddled with the same bullet holes as the other room. He dug through every cupboard and cabinet he could find, but the place was empty. The other guy grunted in annoyance and left the house.

As he opened the front door, Krieg found out why the town was deserted: scattered out along the dirt were numerous bodies, all of them bloated and festering in the sun. Must’ve been a shootout, from the looks of it, the result of infighting that inevitably happens when bandits can’t keep themselves organized, or suffer from dwindling resources. It wasn’t that uncommon for him to stumble upon a bandit camp, only to find that they had already killed each other off. Krieg kind of wanted to inspect the bodies a bit more, see if he could figure out what had happened, but the other guy didn’t care.

The town was a lot larger than he’d initially thought. It had been built around a train rail, with the majority of the buildings centered around the station platform; a useful place to set up camp for any bandits who didn’t want to put the effort into raiding. Not that there were many places nearby for them to raid. 

A series of broken, metal frames from some long destroyed contraption stuck out from the ground near the rail line, the corpse of a man hung from the tip of one by a rope tied around his wrist. A large pool of blood gathered underneath him, slowly dripping from his gray, pallid flesh. Dead, just like all the others. 

The voices whispered incessantly, murmuring on about some man he didn’t know anymore, or maybe a man he never knew. 

The big guy stared up at the corpse, his eye transfixed on the bloated, purple hand. “Maedhros of the_ bloody_ _jewels_, subjected to calamity by the flaming sausage men, met his end upon the fleshy TIDE of malice.” He hissed. Tinged with an air of sadness and unjust suffering, the name sounded familiar, but Krieg was unable to place it. 

How did he get into that situation? He didn’t appear to be a bandit, as he wore the attire of some hapless bastard caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. A passenger of the train, perhaps. Did he deserve it? Did any of them? Certainly Krieg did, after what he’d become, but he was still there, and everyone else was dead. He turned away from the hanged man and went back to searching the town.

\------------

Several painstakingly slow and unfruitful hours of scouring later, he made his way into a ransacked hut. It was different from the other buildings in that it appeared to have been built by the bandits after they occupied to town. The scrap metal door creaked when he pulled it open, rust flaking off the hinges. 

Inside was dim, the only illumination coming from the cracked, dirty windows on one wall and a lightbulb hanging from a wire above the counter, buzzing at it flickered. For a bandit-made hut, it was pretty cozy, with several small tables and multiple mis-matched chairs set up next to the windows. Well, it would’ve been cozy if it weren't for the corpses and broken bottles that littered the floor. 

Krieg stepped over the dead to behind the counter and started sifting through the bottles. Most of them were empty, but he was able to find a case on the floor filled with large, unadorned green bottles that still held something. It was some kind of home brew, but brewed from what? Judging from the smell wafting from the one he uncorked, it had been fermenting for quite a while. He took a cautious sip. 

Krieg felt like he’d been punched in the face, the foul concoction leaving his tongue tingling and his throat burning. It was absolutely disgusting, but no worse than anything else on the godforsaken planet. 

_ Goddamn! What the hell did they make this with? _

“BURNING, FLAMING JUICE!” The big guy yelled enthusiastically, knocking it back to take a generous gulp that left him seeing stars.

_ Oh, fuck, that’s strong shit. _

He recorked the bottle and placed it back in the case.

Standing, Krieg noticed a door in a dark corner, and found it opened up into a set of stairs that led down into a basement set into the rock. It was cool at the bottom. Apparently, it was used as a storage room, as the stony walls were lined with boxes and coolers. Another light-bulb hung from a wire in the center of the room. Krieg opened up one of the coolers, hoping for something he could eat, but found only wrapped piles of rotten meat, the power having gone out long ago. 

_ Eugh, I don’t think even you would want to eat that. _

The other guy whined as he closed the lid. “I wanted a fresh kill!”

_ Maybe there’s something in those boxes…? _

For some unfathomable reason, most of the boxes were filled with ammunition, while the remaining few held canned mystery rations. He pulled on the tab on one blank can, opening it up to reveal a congealing, brackish liquid settled over the top of reddish-brown mush. Well, he wasn’t really in a position to be picky_…_

Krieg went back upstairs and retrieved the case of moonshine, sitting against a wall of the basement as he slurped down an entire box of the rations, washing the sticky mush down with the moonshine. They tasted bland and salty, but it wasn’t like he was gonna find anything better out in the desert. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he got buzzed. His head swam as he tossed the last empty can from the box onto the floor, leaning back against the wall and taking another hearty drink of the moonshine. Like the pool, the stone was cold, but this cold felt like a leach on his skin. 

It occurred to him that maybe consuming the rations and moonshine wasn’t the best idea; he had no idea how old they were, but knowing Pandora, it was safe to assume they’d been out-of-date for months, if not years. But so what? It was hardly the worst thing he’d ingested, but he didn’t care either way. Why should he care? Not like his life was worth caring about, anyways. 

What was the point of it all? Krieg knew so much about the world around him, knew so much about the workings of things and how the universe ran, but he had no memories attached to the knowledge. It made him feel helpless, hopelessly stuck as the backseat driver of his own mind, trying desperately to yank the steering wheel of the out-of-control truck that was his body from his alter ego. He had basically no memory of his life before the slag was pumped into him. Hell, he could barely even remember _ that, _ mostly just flashes of constant, mind-rending pain and screaming. Oh, the _ screaming, _ not to mention the pleading, the _ begging. _

At least the moonshine seemed to numb the regret and phantom pains that rose to the surface to an ache. 

The other guy uncorked yet another bottle and drank. Krieg felt a modicum of grim gratitude that even with his metabolism, regenerative capabilities, and evidently his alcohol tolerance, shot through the roof, he could still get drunk, if only just for a little bit. 

“Sauce me to a boillllll…” The other guy said, drawing the end out into a sadistic cackle.

As his mind hazed over, the clawing voices seemed to blend together, their incoherent babbling reduced to sibilant white noise. Unable to focus or concentrate, he faded in and out of consciousness. He didn't dream as he walked the line between waking and sleeping. Everything phased out of reality except for the steady, warm tingling of what few nerves he could still feel, though he was still vaguely aware of the cold stone behind him.

To Krieg, it was all just a fog of quiet that seemed to last an eternity and yet no time at all. He didn't know how long he'd been laying there when the fog began to clear, but it was painfully slow, and eventually a few thoughts were able to drift through, along with the slight awareness of the discomfort in his neck. Why did it hurt? 

It was only after the fog had dissipated that Krieg realized he’d slumped forward, his head craned at an awkward angle. The tendons and muscles screamed as the big guy sat back up. 

_ Ohhh god, I don’t even want to know how long we’ve been sitting like this. _

Unfortunately, with sobriety also came the splitting hangover. But headaches, nausea, and dizziness were nothing new.

Must’ve been there a while, considering he was hungry again. Figured. The other guy reached forward and pulled another box of cans towards him. He winced when he pulled the top off one of the cans, the scrape of tearing metal grating against his ears. 

After consuming the tasteless contents of another box of rations, Krieg stumbled back outside, squinting as he stepped from the dark bar into the daylight. The sun’s progress indicated that he’d been in the basement far longer than he originally thought. He cursed Pandora for having such long days.

The big guy stalked back through the town to the hanged man’s corpse. He noticed a large rock jutting from the ground near him, and climbed to the top to sit cross-legged, taking apart his buzz-axe as he watched the hanged man sway ever so slightly in the pitiful breeze. Krieg wondered again about the man’s fate as he thumbed the metal. He didn’t know who the dead man was, but he probably didn’t deserve what he got. That rope around his wrist didn’t make him special, though; all kinds of people died out there: the innocent, and the not-so-innocent.

When the sunlight glinted off the axe into his eye, intensifying his headache, the other guy turned his back to the hanged man, away from the glaring sun. 

Krieg was restless, the anxious energy from the big guy snapping and rolling under his skin, hot and bursting like a live wire. It would only take a single touch, the slightest provocation, to set him off. He hadn’t killed anyone in days. The only company he’d had aside from himself was the skags and spiderants, but they were hardly comparable to people. The other guy tapped his axe against the rock, his thoughts bleeding together into Krieg's as he stared out at the empty, monotonous wastes. It was like watching paint dry.

The minutes continued to stretch on... 

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right now. 

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right now.

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right now.

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right now.

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right now.

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right now.

Why aren’t my fingers in someone’s eye sockets right n-

He froze up, Krieg instantly separating from the other guy. 

There were footsteps behind him. The soft, unbothered footsteps of a man with his guard down.

_ Oh, no. _

The other guy slowly turned his head to the side, careful not to make too much movement and alert the man. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the telltale armor of a bandit. Krieg sighed internally as a sick grin split his face, hidden by the mask.

“Fresh meat for the slaughter…” The other guy hissed under his breath, running his tongue across his teeth.

The footsteps stopped, followed by the bandit speaking. It was quiet, directed towards the hanged man, some kind of one-sided conversation that he couldn’t quite make out. It almost sounded like it could be an apology, but for what? Not that it mattered, anyways. Not to the big guy, at least.

Jumping down off the rock, Krieg almost felt sorry for what he knew was coming. The roiling energy under his skin was coming to a boil, desperately seeking release. He wanted to tell the man to run, to hide, to get out of sight so he wouldn’t have to kill him. The big guy tossed his axe into the air, watching it spin as he tried to catch it by the handle. His fingers were slightly too late to grasp it, and the axe fell to the dirt with a dull _ thunk_. Krieg considered himself lucky the bandit didn’t seem to notice him.

As he bent down to grab the axe, Krieg was able to make out some of what the bandit was saying. His previous hunch of an apology was correct, as the bandit was saying something about how he was sorry he hadn’t gotten there sooner. 

“... and I should’ve been there for you. You’re my brother, and I should’ve supported you. I shouldn’t have betrayed you to them, but now the damage is done, and I can’t go back.”

_ ...What? _

Krieg had turned to face the bandit. His eyes locked onto him as the other guy processed what he’d just heard.

** _He did this to you._ **

** _He betrayed you. _ **

The muscles in his neck twitched, his head ticking to the side. 

He betrayed the hanged man to the bandits, issuing his death sentence, and now he had the audacity to _ regret _ what he did?

The whispers came crawling back with a new intensity, setting his blood over the edge as they drowned Krieg out. 

** _This is justice. _ **

** _This is justice. _ **

** _THIS IS JUSTICE._ **

** _HE DID THIS TO YOU._ **

“I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE!” The other guy screamed as he took off into a sprint towards him, the bandit cutting off whatever useless bullshit he’d been spouting as he snapped to face Krieg. He leaped off the top of a sheet of metal sticking from the dirt, sailing towards the bandit as he raised his axe.

_ Heh. Close enough. _


	3. A Meat Bicycle Built For Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changing up the perspective a bit. This chapter is a little bit shorter than the others

His prey was still alive when Krieg pulled the axe from his shoulder. He squirmed in pain, oozing blood and pathetic whimpers, a delicious fountain of red wine for his parched palate, always singing to him, calling him to set it free from its fleshy prison. The stark red against the _disgusting _pale dirt painted such a wonderful masterpiece, just for _him!_ The armor around the bandit helped shield him from most of the damage, but he knew that if he left him alone, he would die within minutes. 

But Krieg didn’t want to leave him alone. He wanted his prey to feel all of life’s glories, wanted to taste his bloody agony on his tongue, drinking in the iron as his life ebbed away into the dirt. 

He kneeled down over the top of him, planting his knees on each side of his torso, and ripped the orange helmet from his head. Oh, how he wanted to sing his praise, to tell him just how _ beautiful _ the symphony was!

“LET ME HEAR THOSE _ SCREAMS!” H_e sang, leaning in close to his face. It was so LOVELY to hear that wonderful song after _ so long _without it, all those empty, mind-numbing hours alone with the Little Man and his ceaseless whispering, always urging him away from the one thing that made him feel truly alive. Krieg wanted to revel in his prey’s music until it bled away into nothing, wanted nothing more than to celebrate the waning of his life as it ebbed through his fingers. He desperately wanted to close the gap between them and sink his teeth into his prey’s neck, to rip open the jugular and taste his hot, coppery blood as it slid down his throat, but the Little Man yanked the metaphorical chain around his neck, preventing him from shooting forward. 

The bandit tried to reach for the gun he’d dropped, but Krieg grabbed his wrist, slowly turning it until he heard the bones and cartilage cracking.

“Keep your little handsies to yourself, OR I’LL LICK YOUR SPINE CLEAN!” Ohohohohoho, how _ dare _ his prey try to fight back! _ He _ was the hunter, _ he _ was the one who held the fate of his prey’s life in his hands, and he would _ not _be denied his victory!

His prey screamed bloody murder, crying out as the wrist snapped. When the hand fell limp in his, he let the arm fall to the ground, then grabbed the other wrist and did the same, reveling in the way he begged for mercy, anything to stop the pain. But there would never be an end, not for Krieg, and _ certainly _not for the dying man beneath him.

There were so many sounds bouncing around in his brain, it was almost difficult for him to concentrate: the whispers in his mind buzzing their little tunes about justice, the blood rushing in his ears, intensified by the adrenaline in his system, his prey’s helpless cries under him, the Little Man scornfully telling him to end it already, always trying to take away his FUN. Krieg could feel his pulse pounding in his chest and head, his blood thrumming through his veins _ hard _ and _ fast _ like a gunshot through his heart.

His prey whimpered pitifully as he dropped the other broken wrist onto the dirt. 

Krieg reached over and picked up the gun laying in the dust and stood, grounding himself before bringing one of his booted feet down over the bandit’s knees, cackling as he drank in the renewed shrieking at the crunch. 

With his prey immobilized, he took a moment to inspect the gun; it was bandit made, a mishmash of various parts, all jammed together and painted blue, with a blade hidden along the side. Ripping the blade free, Krieg kneeled back down, tossing the useless gun to the side, and drove the sharp metal into the bandit’s chest, puncturing a lung. He released the blade and moved to place his thumbs into his prey’s eyes, pressing down until the wet, gurgling cries stopped and he went still. 

_ Are you satisfied? _

Ugh! The Little Man was back with his annoying demands. Funny how he scorned Krieg for making his prey pay, for making him _ suffer_, after the Little Man himself had urged Krieg to kill him when he heard what he had done to Maedhros, the sod that hung from his wrist.

“I ALWAYS HUNGER FOR THE DANCE OF LIFE AND DEATH!” He told the cloying voice. He seemed to sulk off to whatever part of Krieg’s skull he inhabited, not that it mattered to him. Any time spent without the Little Man was a moment to be enjoyed, as far as he was concerned. 

Krieg wiped the blood off his hands onto the bandit’s armor, the fresh, dark wine blending magnificently with the red fabric. He stood and watched, transfixed as the bandit’s blood watered the thirsty ground, then turned and stalked back to the hut with the food, the _ bar_. 

The excitement he felt from the kill began to fade as he crossed the bar’s threshold, so he put the bandit out of his mind.

Returning to the cold basement, he took stock of how much of the food was left. There was only one more box of the rations left. He would have to either wait for the train to stop by or get back to searching the wastes. Neither of his options sounded particularly fruitful, or enjoyable, but he had to do whatever it took to survive in Pandora's delicate mix of heaven and hell. Krieg sat, opening the box up to eat the rest of the rations, not even pausing long enough to register the taste. 

He had been beyond pissed when he saw how the wrapped flesh in the coolers had _ rotted_, spoiled past even his questionably loose preferences. The moonshine he’d found upstairs had been a lucky discovery, however. Normally, he never bothered trying to get himself drunk because it never worked, his metabolism processing everything before he could get right fucked up, but that mystery piss had a nasty bite to it. It buried the voices, even soused the Little Man’s raucous self-flagellation down to a simmer. 

The Little Man’s memories had been easier to ignore, sinking under the intoxication like the drowned dead. He was always going on about he wanted to remember, to know who he was, but Krieg didn’t see any value in them; they were just a series of ugly happenstances, one after another, until he called out and begged for Krieg to save him, to rescue him from the slag and pain. Krieg was born to survive and conquer, but now that they were free, the Little Man just bitched and moaned at him, about how he “stole his mind and body”. That irritating voice had no gratitude, not a word or a smidgen of _appreciation_ for what Krieg did for him. They were alive because of _him,_ they had survived that hell _because of_ _him,_ and he still continued to keep them alive, yet the Little Man refused to acknowledge any of his efforts.

Hmph. 

It was Krieg’s body now; the Little Man had handed him the reins with no hesitation, and he had no intention of letting him have it back. 

He would gladly give the Little Man his memories if it meant that Krieg didn’t have to deal with them anymore, if it meant he didn’t have to worry about shaking and gasping for air every time he heard that weak little voice screaming for him to save her. It was a never-ending struggle to drown it out, to ignore the nagging feeling that he had something to do. Krieg had no intention of following any of the Little Man’s desires, conscious or not. 

This was _ his _life now, and his goal was to survive. Nothing else mattered. 

Before the memories could take hold of him again, Krieg uncorked one of the last bottles of moonshine and took a long drink. It burned as it went down, a hot scalpel slicing down his throat, coating his esophagus and intestines with a fierce heat to match the fire that boiled his blood. He could still feel the adrenaline left over from the kill, coursing through his veins as it urged him forward. 

He contemplated staying long enough to finish the fermented piss, but there was nothing of significance left in the town, not even water, worth staying for. Krieg set the bottle down and left the town, climbing up onto the train rail as he continued his boring, dusty journey north. 

* * *

The rail was bound to lead him somewhere, but it was all of matter of _ when _ instead of _ where; _ the rail lines were known to stretch on with dozens, if not hundreds, of miles in between each station. The optimistic side of him wondered if it would lead him to people who could help him, but it would probably just be more bandits, laying in wait to ambush him the second they spotted his hulking, mutated form. 

“I’M READY FOR A SPINE TINGLER!” The other guy cried at the thought, stumbling forward as a shiver of electricity ran down his back. 

_ Yeah, great. _

Krieg had been walking the rail for hours. He’d had plenty of time to think as he meandered along, watching as the other guy repeatedly tossed his axe into the air. There was no discernible reason for it, but something about that bandit’s mention of betrayal had set him off. It wasn’t just the other guy’s lust for blood that drove his axe into him, but Krieg’s own sudden fury. Maybe he had experience with betrayal? He didn’t know, but it was the scenario that made the most sense, and would explain some of the hissing voices. Still, he couldn’t get the bandit’s words out of his head, couldn’t shake the _ familiarity _ of them.

“She can taste the bloody hatred…” What did that even _ mean? _

Well, it didn’t really matter anymore. The bandit was dead, and he had long since left that town in the dust. There was no use worrying about it now. 

As he turned a corner in the rail, the other guy smacked the axe against his thigh and swung it haphazardly, apparently getting bored with trying to toss and catch the damn thing. In the hours that he’d been practicing, Krieg had perfected the art of throwing the axe into the air, watching it spin, then catching it effortlessly. It wasn’t the safest activity he could be doing, to be sure, but it kept the big guy at least _somewhat_ occupied and distracted. Krieg was just glad that his shoes were mostly steel, as he would’ve lost a few toes if he’d been wearing anything less. 

There was something far ahead of him on the side of the rail, a blurry speck on the horizon. Probably just rocks, or a mirage created by the unremitting heat that turned the desert into a glaring, orange ocean. He wasn’t exactly in a hurry to be anywhere, but the speck caught the other guy’s attention, piquing his interest enough for him to pick the pace up from a leisurely stroll into a semi-determined stride. 

As he slowly approached the strange formation, it began to focus into the shape of another train platform. Unlike the town, this station was sandwiched in between the rail and a large building set into the ground, a stairway leading down on his side, with heavy machinery and cargo blocking the opposite side. The other guy watched the empty platform with anticipation as he drew closer, expecting to see more bandits.

He was so focused on the platform that he almost didn’t hear the train. 

The shaking had been the first sign that something was amiss, followed by a low rumbling, the scraping of metal on metal, steadily increasing in volume. Confused, he turned around. Krieg’s brain misfired, his heart surging in his chest as he registered that there was, indeed, a train barreling straight for him. He only just barely jumped out of the way, leaping from the rail at the last possible second; any later and he’d have been skag food, just another red stain to be washed away. 

The wind was knocked out of him as he hit the cracked dirt, the shock sinking to his stomach as he realized what had just happened.

_ Holy shit, dude, that was close. _

Pushing himself up, he rolled onto his side, his hands shaking as he tried to catch his breath, the sudden rush of adrenaline hitting his system almost as hard as that train would’ve. The daze cleared. He looked up at the now-parked train, and at the woman standing on the platform. 

How long had she been there? He’d been watching the platform like a hawk for hours as he approached, how did he not see her standing there before? 

She held an sub-machine gun at her side, Maliwan from the looks of it. She was too clean to be a bandit, too relaxed, missing the ragged, dirty, desperation that most people on Pandora relied on for survival. Must’ve been a new arrival, some fool looking to make her fortune. No, not a fool. A _ vault hunter. _Fools didn't hold themselves with nearly so much confidence. Though, there was hardly any difference between the two, as far as he was concerned. 

Her right arm was covered, but the left was bare, a sleeve of intricate blue tattoos running over her pale skin, glowing slightly in the sun and looping down over her exposed hip. Vague memories from a past life bubbled up, the voices whispering forgotten conversations with dead men.

_ A siren, a mythical warrior born with unfathomable magical powers, capable of killing a score of trained soldiers with a single thought. _

Krieg’s eye panned back up to her face as she turned towards him. She had blue jaw-length hair, cut short in the back, her lips painted the same electric blue as the tattoos. Was that lipstick, or just another physical trait that came with being born one of the most powerful people in the universe? Her face was narrow and pretty, set into a focused expression. Despite her slender build, she was tall, and Krieg could easily tell she was not weak, that there was significant strength in those wiry limbs, a certain dedication in the way her face was set that spoke of an iron will that refused to break.

She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

As her eyes settled on Krieg’s prone, dusty form, her guarded look changed to confusion, and then mild suspicion. She seemed to say something to herself, but he had no idea what it could’ve been. 

The shock he’d felt at the sight of the train was replaced with flabbergasted amazement, the adrenaline joined by the grasping claws of anxiety. How had he, of all people, managed to encounter _ a siren _ in the middle of fuck-off nowhere at the ass-end of the galaxy? Krieg could feel the cold, heavy hand leave the pit of his stomach, only to clench a warm fist around his heart. For the first time since he’d escaped, he felt a shred of feverish hope spread through his chest. 

The big guy clumsily stood up, brushing the dust off of him as he watched the siren approach him. Slowly, carefully, she picked her way down the platform steps, the SMG at her side still low, but ready to fire at a moment’s notice. 

_ Tell her she’s as gorgeous as a thousand sunsets. Tell her you need her help. Tell her to rescue you, and care for you, and whatever you do, do not scream the word “poop” at the top of your lungs._

The other guy raised his axe towards the sky and gestured wildly with his other arm. “I’M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!” He howled, the fingers of his empty hand curling as he flipped her off.

_ Oh my god, dude. Really? _

He was still a good distance away, but Krieg saw her visibly recoil, her confused expression changing into exasperated disdain. She leapt forward down the remaining steps, raising her SMG.

_ It’s over, idiot. _

Krieg’s shoulders slumped as the other guy realized the situation he’d put them in. 

When the siren took aim and started shooting, he immediately began to stumble around as he tried to dodge the electrified bullets. Krieg would’ve let out a long-suffering sigh if he wasn’t just a voice in his own head.

_ You’re gonna die, here and now, and the last words out of your mouth will have been “poop train”. _

He managed to stumble off towards a pile of rocks, diving behind for cover. Unlike the siren, he didn’t have the luxury of a shield to deflect the bullets, and judging from the tingling in his leg, he suspected his fumbling might not have completely saved him from injury.

The spray of bullets momentarily stopped. The other guy snuck a look over the rocks. The siren was reloading, but it was too late; the gunfire had attracted the attention of the platform’s residents, who were quickly spilling from a chute in the roof.

_ Oh, great, now the rats are arriving. _

The siren finished reloading and resumed her assault on Krieg, oblivious to the danger that was congregating behind her. The rats started clamoring towards her.

_ Turn around, siren. _

A rat in blue stood behind her, holding a grenade up.

_ Turn around, or you’re dead! Tell her to look back, now! _

The other guy peaked over the rocks, raising the axe. “STRIP THE FLESH!”

_ No! Listen to me- _

He looked over again. “SALT THE WOUND!”

Oh, no, no, no, no, not like this. The rats kept encroaching, but she still hadn’t noticed them. Krieg was getting frantic.

_ Yeah, great, we’ll salt all the wounds later, but right now, if you don’t listen to me, she’s gonna die, and it’s gonna be your fault! _

Krieg squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head vigorously, a frustrated strangling noise escaping from his throat. The other guy stood, pulling his arm back as he took aim, “TURN AROUND, PRETTY LADY!” He screamed urgently as he flung the axe forward as hard as he could. 

In the few seconds it took for the axe to reach its mark, Krieg could see several emotions flicker across the siren’s face: momentary panic as he pulled the axe back, bewilderment at his loud statement, enough for her to stop firing, sudden understanding of what he said, and more panic as she turned, her gaze following the axe on its path. Once the axe left his hand, Krieg sprinted forwards.

The siren watched as the axe hit the rat dead between the eyes, skittering wildly as the blade spun, turning its brain into jelly. 

Krieg leaped up, landing on the rat’s shoulders, and yanked the axe out before jumping down to meet the other rats. There was no time for hesitation, no second- guessing, he just needed to keep pushing forward. 

He cackled as he swung the whirring blade through the torso of a rat to his left, stumbling and spinning as he ripped through another, “RRRRGGG, that’s the stuff…” He purred maniacally as he stepped forward, raising his arms to bring the axe down into the skull of a third. Rushing forward, he towered above a fourth, glowering down through the mask at the terrified mutant,. “I’M GONNA PUT MY PAIN INTO YOUR SOUL!” He screamed, watching as the rat collapsed into a heap. 

Krieg paused as he turned about, searching for the last rat he knew was hiding somewhere. It was only when he heard a shriek behind his that he realized his mistake, too late. He turned just in time to see the rat flying through the air at him, claws outstretched, jaw open wide to display an impressive array of teeth filed into points. 

_ FUCK! _

He could almost feel how it was going to dig its fingers into his flesh, tearing out his carotid artery as it latched its filthy mouth around his throat, ripping and tearing him to shreds. The only thing that saved him was the purple glow that suddenly enveloped the rat, suspending it in midair about three meters from him. He could only stare in bewilderment at the sickly light as he tried to process it. 

Was that… _ slag? _ No, it couldn't be, that was _ impossible. _Wasn't it?

Whatever it was, the longer he stared at it, the more he began to feel the slag in himself being inexplicably pulled to it, almost drawn in, calling him to it with a strange, shrill vibration… 

He stared at the rat for a few seconds before movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. The siren.

Of course! It must’ve been whatever weird siren powers she possessed that held the rat.

Krieg turned his head towards her, eyes narrowing. The siren only stared back as her tattooed arm glowed. She wore a grim look, but her hostility from moments earlier had left. She was trying to help him. She had _ saved _him.

Finally connecting the dots and understanding the situation, he turned back to the rat, leaping towards it as he raised his axe again, bringing it down into the rat’s skull as the purple orb faded.

The siren watched silently as he planted a boot on the rat’s corpse, pulling the axe out with a sickening squelch. 

_ Now tell her “thank you”. Tell her that because of her, we might actually, one day, be able to act like a normal person again. _

The big guy stood silent for several seconds, breathing heavily. He turned towards her suddenly, “I powdered my cockatiel for the ribcage slaughter!” He cried, dramatically pointing at the siren.

Remembering the actions that got him into that mess in the first place, the other guy lowered his arms quickly, worried that she might start shooting him again. She didn’t respond, only looked at him with that same grim expression. Krieg was beginning to think he’d caused her offense, the anxiety returning to knot his intestines, when the unthinkable happened. 

She… smiled. The frown that she’d been wearing melted away as the corners of her blue lips pulled upwards, her eyebrows raising into impressed arches as a look of appreciation overtook her eyes. She almost looked fond.

Krieg lowered his eye to the platform in an effort to avoid her gaze. He hadn’t expected that kind of reaction, and the fire under his skin returned to burn his face and neck, the hope he’d felt earlier returning tenfold, blooming in his chest like a phoenix rising from the ashes. 

_ Huh. Close enough? _

He couldn’t believe she’d just… accepted that comment in stride.

Maybe the world was sending him a sign…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's end on a high note for once, shall we?


	4. Welcome To Pandora, Kiddos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maya boards the Hyperion train to glory and meets some unlikely companions

There were a lot of things Maya had expected to find on Pandora, and so far, many of those expectations had proved correct: cannibals, psychotic killers, barren wastelands and deserts, heatstroke, bandits, and dangerous fauna trying to eat her alive at nearly every turn. She had been researching the planet for a long time, even before she left Athenas, and it was almost comforting to know that it hadn’t been a monumental waste of time. 

Maya remembered the first time she’d seen the name _ Pandora, _ in the footnotes of some study on the borderland planets in the galaxy. It hadn’t been much, just a casual mention of the planet’s massive size and apparently hostile, yet habitable, surface. Something about it had stuck with her, gluing itself to her brain like one of ratches the monks kept hidden in their distillery, and it led her on a hyper-focused hunt through the library, searching the countless tomes for any mention of the place. 

Eventually, she’d finally found what she was looking for in the form of a ratty pile of papers held together with filthy bindings. They were research notes from a particularly gifted scientist by the name of Dr. Tannis, who had evidently spent the last several years on the planet. According to Dr. Tannis, there was a connection between sirens like Maya and the element Eridium that the corporations monopolized on, which also hinted at a connection between sirens and the alien vaults the Eridium supposedly came from. That, in turn, set Maya on her spiraling, borderline obsessive, path to where she was now, standing in some dark train in a desolate expanse she could only describe as _hell. _

And it was_ perfect. _

Compared to the ceaseless quiet of the monastery, meditating and listening to sermons about the “glorious impending storm”, the constant danger of Pandora thrilled her. She had only been on the planet for about two of it’s daytime cycles, but never before had she been in a position where even the smallest mistake could be her last, where she could _finally _put her years of training to the test, to push herself to become an even greater incarnation of who she already was.

It was Maya’s first time off Athenas, not to mention she was brand new to the vault hunting gig, but she was no greenhorn when it came to battle; she’d been sent by the Order of the Impending Storm all across Athenas to train and hone her skills, and it wasn’t uncommon for some of her outings to devolve into her hunting down bandits and the towering monsters that called the Athenas their home. 

Of course, she was usually accompanied by at least one of monks and a guard. Once she stepped foot inside the shuttle to Pandora, Maya had quickly realized that she'd need to learn how to watch her own back, to be even more conscious of the battlefield than before. Hell, she’d already nearly lost her life because of a rookie mistake - the adrenaline was still flowing through her system - but she was alive, and the rats were dead.

The interior of the train car was dim, the dark metal and peeling paint illuminated by fluorescent lights set into the ceiling. There were three other vault hunters already on the train when she stepped in: two men and a teenage girl. The men, a muscled stump of a man with a shock of spiked blue hair and an average-looking poster boy for the Dahl military, were sprawled out on one of the benches that lined the cabin, snoring contentedly while the teenage girl, a rowdy-looking punk with messy red hair and a robotic arm, sat slouched forward on the floor with her nose stuffed into a book on engineering.

Maya stumbled and momentarily lost her balance as the speeding train went around a corner, turning a complete 180. 

She wasn’t really sure what to do next; she had plenty of expertise and knowledge when it came to combat and other subjects, but social situations left her at a loss. And if the vault hunters in the cabin weren't enough, that huge, half-naked… _ man… _who saved her from the rats not five minutes earlier was also with them, standing awkwardly in the corner by the door they'd entered from.

A strange one, that man. After their run-in with those rats, she'd made a stumbling attempt to thank him and boarded the train, not wanting to miss it and wait who knew how long for the next one. Who was he? At first, Maya had simply assumed he was another dumbass bandit, but after he proved to be_ relatively _friendly, she figured he must've been there for the same reason she was: board the Hyperion train and join the hunt for the vault. Why else would he walk through the desert looking for a Hyperion station? He looked like just another one of the axe-wielding psychos who called Pandora home, but he handled himself like a professional. Or, rather, as professional as anyone could get when they weren't yelling obscenities at random people they met in the desert. Quite the _charmer_. She couldn't decide if the way he yelled strange things at the top of his lungs was a deliberate attempt to be creepy, or if it was just his own special way of communicating, but it was definitely weird_. _Vault hunters sure did come from all different walks of life.

The sleeping men, she could understand. The loud shirtless guy, she could kinda understand. But what about that girl on the floor? At least Maya and the other three were grown-ass adults, but she looked so_ young_, like she should still be in school and staying up late with friends to talk about… whatever it was that normal kids talked about, not on a train to search for alien technology and fortune in the middle of nowhere. She supposed she could always just ask_, _but would that be ok? Was that a socially acceptable thing to ask about? What if it wasn't? She remembered what it had been like to be a teenager, always wanting the annoying adults to keep their noses out of her business. What if Maya offended her by prying into the teen's personal life? Agh, she didn't know what to do!

After several unsure seconds, Maya opted to take a seat opposite the sleeping men, pulling her echo out to check a few things. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the large man look around for a moment before pulling open a door to another car, disappearing without a single word as he closed it behind him. 

It was several minutes before anyone spoke. Maya put her echo away and pulled one of her books out, a small paperback about survival tactics in different environments, and had just started to focus when she heard the teenager exclaim loudly.

"WOAH! When did you get here?!" She asked Maya, dramatically clapping her own book shut. 

Maya looked up, startled at the sudden noise. “Oh, uhhh, I- uh I’m um… Maya. Me and another guy got on at the, uh, at the last stop.” She stuttered. The teen tilted her head slightly, clearly confused.

“Uhhhh… how long ago was that? I don’t remember the train stopping.”

“Um, like, ten minutes ago?”

“...Oh.” 

There was a stretch of silence as the teen got a weird look on her face, concentrating like she was trying to remember.

“So, uhh, what’s, um, what’s your name?” Maya asked.

The teen brightened, sitting up straight as a cheesy grin split her face, “I’m Gaige! I thought I’d try out this whole “Vault Hunter” thingamajig, so I got on the train a couple hours ago right after my ship landed.” She spoke quickly and enthusiastically, like she’d been waiting to find someone to talk to.

Although it took her by surprise and left her baffled, Gaige’s energy and sincerity was refreshing after dealing with the calm, collected, condescending monks on Athenas and the apathetic employees who ran the shuttle that took her to Pandora. She spoke to Maya like she was an equal, just another person instead of the terrifying vengeful god she’d been raised to be. 

Gaige didn't seem to mind Maya's social awkwardness, as she just kept on talking without any hesitation or prompting. She went on about how she built a robot to combat bullying at school, but it accidentally killed another student, and she was forced to flee the planet or risk arrest.

"So, I was, like, supposed to just be hiding out with this weird vigilante group called the "Crimson Riders" or whatever they're called, try to keep my head down until the shitstorm back home dies down, but I thought: nah, I wanna test out my Baby and cause a little_ anarchy_, y'know?" She gestured wildly as she went on, talking with her hands just as much as her voice.

"Your… baby?" Maya asked, mildly confused. 

"The robot I built! His name's Deathtrap, but I call him my Baby." Gaige explained casually, like designing and building a robot from scratch was just something that most people do in their spare time. “You wanna see ‘im?”

“Uhhh… _ sure.” _What’s the worst that could happen?

Gaige deposited her book into a storage deck on her hip and stood, raising her robotic arm partway into the air before pausing, “WAIT! You said you got on here with another guy, right?” She asked, a bit of excitement joining the enthusiasm in her eyes.

Maya had forgotten about him. “Yeah, he went into the other car.” She pointed to the door to her left.

“What’s his name?”

Oh, now this was embarrassing. “I… don’t know. I only just met him at the station. He saved me from a bunch of crazy guys, but uh… I didn’t think to ask what his name is.” 

Gaige nodded as Maya spoke, “That’s cool! We’ll just have to ask him when we find him. You know, you and those two knuckleheads sleeping over there are the first vault hunters I’ve ever met, I can’t wait to meet _another _one! You guys are supposed to be, like, the cream of the crop, right? Badasses among badasses?” There was a kind of innocence to the way she spoke, it almost made Maya sad to imagine what a place like Pandora would do to her. 

"Ummm…" Maya was a bit hesitant to find the large man, as she was starting to doubt her earlier assumption. "Y'know, I'm actually not entirely sure if he's a vault hunter or not, to be honest."

Gaige raised her eyebrows, "What do you mean, like is he a bandit or something?"

"No! Nothing like that, he's just… weird, is all. Really big. Doesn’t have a shirt on. He just kinda-sorta showed up out of nowhere and started yelling nonsensical stuff at me."

"So he's, like - what're those guys called… a psycho, kind of?"

"I… I guess so? He has one of the masks, and an axe, but they look different from the other ones I've seen so far."

"COOL! I can't wait to meet him!" Gaige didn't seem put off in the slightest.

Maya stood, returning her book to her hip as she walked over to the door the man had gone through, Gaige at her heels. There was a window in the center of the door, the light shining through showing that it was a dining car; windows ran down the length of the cabin, and tall booths lined the left side, but she couldn't see the large man in any of them. Perhaps he'd moved on to one of the cars further ahead?

She pulled the door open and stepped through. The car didn’t feel empty to her, even though there was no sign of the man. Moving forward, Maya peered out the long windows one the right side of the car, watching absentmindedly as the bleak, rocky scenery sped past.

The train came up onto another station and had slowed to a stop when Maya heard loud cackling, the sadistic laughter of the man she was looking for. It didn't sound like it was coming from inside the car, but was emanating from outside, somewhere further ahead.

"What the _hell _was that?" Gaige asked.

"That," Maya told her, "Would be the psycho-man we're looking for. He must be hanging onto the outside of one of the cars."

Gaige ran up to one of the windows, craning her head to look out at the side of the train. "Damn, this guy sure knows how to have a good time! But, uhhh, what the hell’s he doin’?" She said, leaning against the glass. Maya went up the window next to her, trying to see what she was staring at. 

There! He was holding onto a ladder on the side of the car in front of them, his right arm hanging at his side, gripping his axe. They watched the man pull himself back slightly when the train started moving again. Then, once the train was up to speed, he shifted his weight forward, lifting his arm to swing his axe. Maya thought he was just screwing around, but as the axe reached the peak of its arch, the spinning blade sliced through the torso of a bandit clinging to one of the train's guide rails. He kicked the bandit off of the axe, and the sod's cries were replaced by the man's laughter, a loud, harsh sound that probably would've been ear-grating if he was any closer.

"That was a fine kill/Truly, for a psycho, he/ sure knows how to hunt." A voice spoke up behind them, causing Gaige to jump and shout in surprise and Maya to reach for her gun. 

Turning to face the voice, Maya and Gaige came face-to-face with a tall figure in a black suit and a_ very _shiny helmet. "Who the hell are you? How long have you been there?" she asked, raising her gun to the stranger. Damn! Maya thought she'd have learned her lesson about not watching her back at the station, but apparently not. She mentally kicked herself for being so careless.

The figure lifted their hands in front of them, and Maya saw that they only had three fingers per hand. Were they an alien? A red, holographic smiley face appeared in front of their helmet. "I did not mean to/ Startle you. I am a vault/ Hunter like you two." They said. There was something odd about the way they spoke, but Maya couldn't quite put her finger on it… 

"My name is Zer0/ I am searching for challenge/ And to test my skills." A large 0 symbol replaced the smiley face. 

They seemed about as trustworthy as anyone could get on Pandora, so Maya put her gun away. "It's, uh, it's nice to meet you, Zer0. I'm, um, Maya, and this here is-"

"I'm Gaige!" She hollered, cutting Maya off. "How the hell did you sneak up on us? Are you a ninja? Why've you got only four fingers? Didja lose 'em? Are you some kinda robot or alien or whatever? Why do you talk in haiku?" Oh,_ that's _what it was! They were speaking each line like a goddamn haiku. Ugh, how pretentious.

Zer0 clutched their gut as they started laughing, flashing an XD. Clearly they were more amused than offended at the sudden onslaught of questions. "You have got some guts/ You will need it to survive/ Here on Pandora." 

Maya opened her mouth to ask Zer0 if there was anyone else on the train when a loud noise to her right distracted her; all three of them turned to see the door at the end of the car screech open, and in stepped the shirtless man, toting his blood-stained axe. 

“Man, you weren’t kidding about him being big! This guy’s HUGE!" Gaige said, causing Maya to turn and look sharply at her. _Why _did she have to bring that up _now _when he was literally right in front of them? That was annoying. 

The man looked from Maya, to Gaige, to Zer0, and finally back to Maya, his expression unreadable save for the slight movement under his mask that suggested the raising of an eyebrow. He was much quieter than he'd been at the station, opting to simply stare them down instead of yelling. Maya didn't _think _the look in his visible eye was hostile, but even she could tell he was on edge. It was probably due to the small size of the train cars, she thought.

Gaige didn't seem perturbed in the slightest, running up to him and loudly chattering about that bandit he killed, turning her barrage of questions onto him instead of Zer0. "Aw, dude, that looked like it was SO fun! How'd you know that guy was out there?” 

The man looked down at Gaige, who was barely even eye level with his sternum, with a perplexed look crossing his eye. “The puny morsels can’t hide from_ my _flaming eye!” He said, his voice still dropped to that guttural tone. Maya was starting to think that that was just his default tone, but there was no way talking like that all the time wouldn’t hurt or fuck up his throat; it made her own hurt just thinking about it. 

“Oh, DUDE! That is _so badass! _ Who are you, anyways? I’m Gaige!” Again, she seemed completely unfazed by him. In fact, she seemed almost giddy at the inherent violence and hostility of Pandora… not that Maya could blame her. What a strange kid.

The confusion in his eye slowly faded, replaced with the intense, stern glare he’d fixed Maya with at their first encounter. “I am the inside of this world… the bloody puppeteer of the dancing meat play! I taste the gore,” he snarled, an animalistic noise that should’ve belonged to a feral beast and not a man, “I smell the crying, and I am the king! Der Meister der Dunkelheit! Ich bin der Metzger! ICH BIN DER KRIEGER DES TODES! Und ich heiße Krieg…” He drew the last word out into a long, throaty rumble. What did any of that mean? It didn’t sound like any of the languages that the monks had tried to teach her, but it was somehow familiar, she just couldn’t place it. 

Gaige had recoiled slightly when the man’s gravelly voice raised to a yell, but Maya wasn’t sure if it was from fear or surprise. “Uuuuuuuhhhhhh…” She droned on for several seconds, staring up at the man’s masked face. “OH! Your name is _Krieg! _Ok!” Clearly she understood at least enough of his bilingual chatter to catch his name. “It’s nice to meetcha, Krieg!” She said, raising her hand into the air like she was expecting a high-five. 

There was only a small moment of hesitation before he raised his own meaty hand to smack hers, Gaige letting out an enthusiastic shout when he did. 

An exclamation point flashed over Zer0’s helmet, but they said nothing. 

Krieg, huh? It was hardly what Maya had expected, but then again, she hadn’t really expected him to even have a name. Either way, it fit him well enough; it was short and to the point, a hard, violent word that grated against the back of her mouth. 

Maya stepped towards Krieg, stopping to Gaige’s right. “It occurred to me that I, uh, forgot to introduce myself at the station. Sorry about that. And I’m _really _sorry I started shooting at you. I’m Maya.” She hesitantly extended her right hand towards him, not entirely sure if shaking hands would be appropriate for their current situation, but she wanted to make a better impression than she had earlier.

Krieg looked down at her outstretched hand. Maya was beginning to think that it really was a bad decision, and was about to pull away when he reached forward and took it, shaking slowly and with a shocking amount of gentleness, considering his apparent disposition and the fact that his freakishly large hand easily dwarfed Maya’s. Krieg’s arm and palm were wrapped in bandages stained with blood, but she noticed some scarring peeking out from under the edges and running along what little skin she could see. He was surprisingly warm, too, the heat radiating through the thick bandaging and Maya’s own glove like he was some kind of human furnace. It was kinda odd, but it could’ve just been from the bad sunburn he had. 

Gingerly, Krieg lifted Maya’s hand up to his masked face, bumping the back of it against the metal right under the tube connecting to his respirator, mimicking the act of kissing her hand. “The cerulean siren of the sandy sea can shoot my sassy skin to a scorched, sanguinary steak _anytime._” He growled, releasing Maya’s hand. 

Maya raised an eyebrow, her arm dropping back down to her side. “Uhhh… thanks. I think.” That was… not the strangest thing he’d said so far, but probably the most straightforward. The only issue was figuring out what he meant. It almost sounded like he was trying to accept her apology, but also tell her that he didn’t mind her shooting him, although she couldn’t possibly fathom _why _that wouldn’t bother him.

Wait. He called her a siren. Did he know that’s what she was, or was it just the only word he could think of for his alliteration? She supposed her siren identity probably would’ve been obvious after she phaselocked that rat, but how did he even manage to form an alliteration like that so quickly? Was it just something he heard somewhere else and started parroting, or did he really possess such an advanced vocabulary that-

“Hold on, you didn’t tell me you _shot _him!” Gaige said, interrupting Maya’s train of thought. The teen looked positively scandalized. 

“_At _him! I shot _at _him! I thought he was just another bandit, I didn’t know he was a good guy!” Maya told her. It was only then that she started to wonder if she’d landed a shot or not. “Um, I didn’t actually hit you, did I?” 

Krieg shuffled his axe to his other hand, then leaned down and moved his braced arm to poke at a bloody hole in his pants on the outside of his thigh, just barely above the knee. Ah. Whoops_. _

_ “ _ Oh, by the stars, I am _so sorry, _dude. Here, if you can sit down somewhere, I can heal it for you.” Healing wasn’t exactly her specialty, but Maya figured she could manage to fix a single bullet hole. Next to her, Gaige was muttering various questions about _how _and _why _and _what the fuck, Maya_. 

She had to admit, though, the guy was a damned trooper if he'd managed to walk off a literal bullet in his leg like it was nothing. It didn't seem to even bother him, more like it was a minor inconvenience instead of something that could very easily escalate to life-threatening if left untreated. Could his nerves be fucked up? Or maybe he just had a ridiculously high pain tolerance. Both seemed equally as likely as the other.

Krieg seemed uncertain, but he obliged, sitting on the edge of a booth without a word. Kneeling next to him, she set her left hand on his kneecap, focusing her energy into healing. Behind her, Gaige yelled dramatically as Maya's tattoos started glowing. She could sense the bullet moving as it dislodged itself from his flesh, pushing out a moment later and dropping to the metal floor with a quiet _clatter_. Slowly, the wound began to knit itself back together; it was small enough that it wouldn't scar, leaving a bloodied, but otherwise clear, patch of fresh skin. 

When Maya removed her hand and stood, Krieg quickly leaned forward to inspect the site through the hole in his pants, running his thumb over the spot. 

"Dude, that was cool, but how the hell did you _do _that?" Gaige demanded. 

"Strange tattoos, power/ To manipulate the world/ You're a siren, yes?" Zer0 had been content to stand by the window and observe, but now they seemed interested in Maya's abilities. That was never a good sign.

Maya tensed up, preparing herself for the inevitable. "Yes, I am." What was their angle? They stated their intentions earlier, but Maya had seen her wanted posters around, she knew damn well how much Hyperion was willing to pay to bring her into their custody, and not a lot of people would be so willing to ignore the hefty sum they offered. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Zer0 raised a hand, shaking it as they said, "Not at all. On the/ Contrary, all of us are/ Wanted people here." They reached into a pocket on their suit and produced a small folded paper, handing it to Maya. 

When she unfolded the yellow page, Maya found she was staring at a wanted poster from Hyperion, a mugshot of Zer0’s helmeted head front and center. Their crime of political assassination and their bounty of $32,000,000,000 was printed in bold letters underneath. Wow. Their bounty was still lower than Maya’s, but damn! Gaige peaked over her shoulder, trying to see what was on the poster, so Maya turned it for her to see.

“Holy _shit_, dude! Who the hell did you kill to rack up a bounty like _that?” _ Gaige asked. 

Zer0’s response consisted of another smiley face hovering over their helmet. 

“Fine, don’t answer! I’ll figure it out eventually.”

…Why would Hyperion let someone they wanted taken down onto their train? It was possible that they just didn’t screen anyone who boarded, but many of the other more powerful corporations were known to do so, so why would Hyperion be any different? Was it the fact that Pandora was such a desolate shithole that it was too much of a hassle? No, surely they wouldn’t be that careless, especially considering that they had their own moon station floating above the planet, not to mention an entire city somewhere south.

Of course, there was also something suspicious about the way Hyperion seemed to welcome vault hunters with open arms… It could have just been her imagination, or the product of years of expecting everyone to have ulterior motives, but the whole thing smelled bad, like incense shrouding a body. Maya hoped she was wrong, but she couldn't shake the anxious knife that pushed into her gut.

“Hey… doesn’t it seem kind of odd to you guys that Hyperion has been asking for help from vault hunters for so long?” Maya asked them. A question mark appeared over Zer0. 

Gaige looked confused. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean, I did some research on my way to Pandora, and I found out that it’s been at least two or three years since they started putting out their ads, and yet they’re still running them. You’d think they’d have had at least a few takers before us over the years, not to mention some kind of progress on locating the vault, and yet reports never say anything about it. They only ever broadcast the advertisements.” Yes, the more she thought about it, the more strange it seemed to her. 

Zer0’s question mark was replaced with three exclamation points. “Get rid of any/ Competition so they can/ Take the vault themselves. A bold move, indeed/ And yet it seems to work, since/ They’re still doing it.”

“We should check the train and make sure there’s no one on here waiting to ambush us.” Maya suggested.

“I’m on it.” Zer0 stated. Maya thought they were joking since they hadn’t moved, but after a second, their body turned translucent and then disappeared. What the hell?

“Fucking _SHIT__!"_ Gaige shouted, “Goddamn it!” The teen raised her left arm up into the air, and a mass of blue began to digistruct in front of her, taking the shape of a legless, floating robot with large arms ending in wicked claws. “We should go wake the other knuckleheads up.” 

The three, or four, if she was counting the robot, of them stepped back into the car with the sleeping men. The blue-haired man hadn’t moved, but the poster boy had slid to the side until his head was touching the bench seat, a line of drool dripping from the corner of his open mouth.

“Hey! WAKE UP, GUYS!” Gaige stood in front of them and clapped her hands, causing the poster boy to bolt upright, a look of alarm on his face as he frantically looked around.

“Oh, god, what? Are we being attacked? Who the hell are you guys?” He asked, blinking as he tried to focus on Maya and Krieg. 

“Train might be a trap, we gotta search it and make sure Hyperion’s not tryna kill us.” She was right to the point with no time for bullshit, a complete turnaround from her attitude a few minutes ago. 

The poster boy straightened at that, pulling his own gun out as he stood and kicked the blue-haired man in the shin. “Hey, Sal! Get the fuck up, we’ve got trouble.”

The blue-haired man, Sal, jerked awake. “Eh, what you say, hermano?”

“It’s time to go insane!” Krieg shouted from somewhere behind Maya.

“Hyperion is probably going to try to kill us.” Maya told him. “You and Gaige go search that end,” she pointed towards the dining car, “While the other two and I will search the other end. If you don’t find anything, we meet up back here.”

Sal looked a bit lost at first, but he quickly grasped the seriousness of the situation. “You got it, amiga.” He said, standing and pulling a hefty shotgun from a holster on his back. They trotted off through the door, the robot following several feet behind. 

Wasting no time, Maya clutched her SMG and headed through the previously unopened door at the other end of the car, the poster boy behind her, and Krieg backing up the rear.

They moved through an empty car before they found the first of their resistance. Several yellow boxes sat at the opposite end, but when Maya approached, they began to unfold into Hyperion loaders.

“Oh, shit! You guys were right!” The poster boy yelled, raising his gun to shoot at the newly deployed loaders. He and Maya made short work of them, but they were assaulted by more and more loaders each time they entered a new car. Maya briefly wondered why Krieg wasn’t joining in, but when she looked back, she found that he had stayed one car behind them to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Probably for the best, considering he didn’t seem to have any weapons besides his axe, and close combat amidst gunfire wouldn’t be a good idea in such tight quarters. 

Eventually they were forced to stop when they reached a thick, locked door. 

“Damn it.” The poster boy said, kicking the door in frustration. He pulled his echo out. “Hey Sal, how are things on your end?” 

There was a crackling noise as the echo connected, then the sound of gunfire. “Fucking peachy!” Came Sal’s ragged voice over the sound of buckshot. “You were right, these corporate bastards are tryna do us in! Hijo de puta!” There was a span of relative silence as Sal finished off whatever enemies he’d found. “Goddamn… You guys find anything?”

“Nah, just some loaders and a locked door. You need any backup?”

“We’re good for now, but we should regroup. There’s probably not much behind that damn door besides more loaders, anyways. See you guys back at the first car” The echo line went dead as Sal disconnected, and the poster boy turned back to the door. 

Why would Hyperion bother sealing the door? There had to be something behind it, either something they needed to see or something they needed to get away from, but which one was it? 

“Krieg? Krieg!” Maya turned and yelled down to the man, who was standing in the previous car with his back to them, his axe hefted up to waist height. He turned when he heard Maya’s voice. “Come help me with this, would you?” Krieg jogged down the train to where she stood in front of the door, looking focused. The poster boy glanced at Krieg, then to the door, then finally to Maya. 

“Oh, I like the way you think!” He said, backing away.

“Do you think you’d be able to get this door open?” Maya asked. The big guy stepped up to the door, motioning Maya to get back. She stood next to the poster boy about two meters behind Krieg, watching as he lifted his axe up and brought it down onto the handle with a grunt. 

Krieg motioned for the others to step back up to the door, then kicked it open. 

Peering around Krieg, they found out what was in the room. 

“Oh, fuck.” The poster boy said.

_ Oh, fuck _was right. In the middle of the next car stood a desk chair with a mannequin seated in it, and surrounding the mannequin was enough dynamite to blow them to Elpis. The chair turned, displaying the timer in the mannequin’s lap.

Krieg immediately pulled the door shut, and the three of them turned and booked it back down the length of the train as fast as they could. Krieg was pulling the doors between the cars shut as they ran, trying to put as much between them and the impending explosion as possible. 

Goddamn it! She had finally gotten away from the fucking Order, and now she was gonna die ‘cause she made yet _another_ dumbshit mistake. Maya should’ve known Hyperion would pull something like that out of their ass; she should’ve known better than to trust a _corporation!_ If they could just make it a little further, if they could just get far enough away from the dynamite, maybe they could survive. 

They had only gotten through three cars when Maya felt the floor rumbling. It quickly grew into a deafening roar as the blast traveled down the train, knocking her down as it was blown off the rails. 

Maya was thrown through a window, but the shards of glass stabbing her didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the icy wind suddenly biting into her exposed skin. Below her stretched miles and miles of bleak ice and trash, blanketed by a thick layer of fog. She thought they were headed north, why was the train so far south? Of course, leave it to _fucking Hyperion _to also lie about where their damn betrayal train was headed. 

Oh no, what would happen to Gaige and Sal? Certainly they had a better chance of surviving, what with them being further away, right? By the stars, let Gaige be ok, she was just a kid, she didn’t deserve to meet her end so soon. 

Something metal hit Maya in the temple as she sailed through the air, and the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the stars splattered across the dark sky. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My german isn't very good, so please, feel free to message me if you see anything wrong :P


	5. Windshear Waste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maya is having a rough day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by caffeine! The wretched bean juice that fueled me through a frenzy of typing that somehow led to this getting knocked out in an evening

Maya didn’t know where she was, or how she got there, the only sensation she had was of cold darkness, giving way into the warmth of dreams. It was a moment from some five years prior, a few weeks after Maya’s 23rd birthday.

It wasn’t always sunny on Athenas. The weather was usually pretty consistent, but every once in a while, dark clouds would roll in and blanket the cliffside town by the monastery in heavy rain. It was a steady, never-ending torrent of water, occasionally joined by fierce thunderstorms, but always lasting for several days on end. The roads and gutters would clog with the excess runoff as it swept away trash, dirt, and any small animals unfortunate enough to get caught in it. Despite the inherent mess of the rainstorms, the people of Athenas took to the streets to celebrate, dancing and laughing with friends and family while their kids ran and played in the running puddles. 

Or, at least they used to, back before the Order of the Impending Storm came to power.

Maya had never seen the people of Athenas celebrate, had never seen so much as a friendly get-together that wasn’t hosted by and for the monks of the order. Not that the monks would ever let her get out and _mingle _with her “subjects” as they called the town’s inhabitants. The only reason she knew anything about Athenas, or even the universe she lived in, was because of the monastery’s vast library; she’d found a hulking tome detailing the history and traditions of the various cultures across Athenas when she was a teenager, and it had taken her months to creep her way through to the end. 

The monks didn’t always approve of her insatiable desire to learn about the world around her, many of them preferring she stick to honing her skills as a siren. They told her that she wouldn’t need to know about the history of dancing in the rain because when her time came, she would be too busy protecting the planet from threats to care about “frivolous pastimes”.

But what threats was she supposed to protect them from? How could she be a good and just protector if she didn’t know anything about the people she was supposed to protect? Sophis could only ever wave away her concerns and questions with the same disregard a person might show to a babbling toddler. He wasn’t particularly happy when she’d began asking questions about the Order’s history, so Maya learned to keep her midnight outings to the library a secret, how to hide her books in her room like a timid child afraid of being reprimanded for having something that wasn’t theirs. 

The latest bout of rainstorms had just passed by only mere hours before, slowly letting off until it was a light drizzle, and eventually the clouds dissipated to reveal the sun’s warm embrace. Maya couldn’t remember what time it was, but the sun was just making its way up over the monastery’s walls, casting its rays through the dripping water and turning the entire town into an iridescent fantasy. 

Maya had been out in the garden with one of the kinder monks, meditating as she listened to the gentle sound of the rainwater dripping off the flowers and greenery into the mushy grass. The rain was always so calming, helping her slip into a meditative state far quicker and easier than she normally did. In her dream, the colors in the air from the morning light soaked and blended into each other and everything else until her vision swam like a psychedelic palette of oil paints. Sensations of water droplets on her bare arms and crisp air in her lungs were numbed to a dull tingling. 

Standing, Maya slowly went through her routine stretches, getting all of the kinks and stiffness out of her joints before walking over to the rail surrounding the courtyard. The garden was built into a hillside, and so it was divided into several areas, all at different levels. Maya was in the very top level, where the monks grew fruits and berries, an impressive spread of various plants found only on Athenas. There were a few plants imported from other planets, too, with Maya’s favorites being a collection of colorful flowers from the family _ Lilium. _

The gardens spread out beneath her, several paths worn into the dirt trailing around the floral expanse, through multiple other stony courtyards, even a small hedge maze off to the side, before they met back up the gate far below. Maya leaned against the vine-covered stone of the rail, her hands clasped together as she watched a few monks meandered through. The sun climbed higher, illuminating a small rest area partially surrounded by a trellis. Standing in the midst of it was brother Sophis, along with someone entirely out of place among the beautiful, colorful scenery: someone dressed in leathers, like some kind of wild west punk cowboy, complete with a wide-brimmed hat and a bandanna obscuring their face. The monks almost never let outsiders into the temple, much less the _ garden_; they considered it a sacred place that non-Athenians weren’t allowed to enter. The person looked like a mercenary, what were they doing there? 

Later that day, Maya approached Sophis, asking him who the figure had been, and why he’d let them into the garden when he was so adamant about maintaining the Order’s “no outsiders” rule. He was more stern and avoidant than usual, claiming the person was just some merchant looking to leave offerings for her. 

Did Sophis really think her still a gullible child? She might not have had much interaction with people besides the monks, but Maya knew damn well what that that person was no merchant. She had been flabbergasted by Sophis’ apparent dismissal of the situation. He ordered Maya to put it out of her mind, to forget about the figure and continue her training. 

That was the first time that Maya had started doubting the Order, had started doubting Sophis, the head monk whom had been the closest thing Maya had to a father in her lonely life. What was he hiding from her? 

Maya had been careful to hide her tracks as she pored over every scrap of relevant text she could find. For once, the library was of little help. The monks kept Maya’s access to the echonet severely limited, and after several days of fruitless searching, the only clue to who the figure was had been a mention of some man named Clay on Eden-6, and despite him matching the description, even that wasn’t exactly clear. The memory of quickly flipping through books hidden in an area off-limits to her blurred into streaks of orange and brown, the text illegible as the ink shifted and leaked down her vision. 

She also found an old report from one of the other monks subservient to Sophis. Maya had found it tossed haplessly into a waste bin in Sophis’ office, and while everyone was sleeping, she snuck in and took a peak at its contents.

It detailed an event that occurred a few days before her birthday in which some ex-corporate spy-turned-outlaw had made an attempt on Maya’s life, and the figure Maya saw Sophis with had been sent to “deal with” the would-be assassin. The figure’s name was never mentioned. She… appreciated… their initiative when it came to protecting her life, but they way they acted… it had been like they were protecting an object and not a living, breathing person. It rubbed her the wrong way.

For a brief moment, Maya wondered why that had been the memory her brain wanted to revisit. Her dreams were almost always like that: semi-lucid snippets from her life replayed in vivid and wild detail, yet blurring just enough for them to be slightly disorienting. 

Darkness overtook her sight as everything around her began to shift and melt, the colors of her dream fading into the black of her closed eyes. A dull ache seeped into her entire body, the warmth of sleep slowly being replaced with numbness and sharp, prickling sensations in her left arm and face. A heavy weight was resting over the top of her. As her nerves returned to life, Maya became aware of a ringing in her ears, joined by what sounded like distant shouting and the crackle of fire. Why did she hear fire? Was she out camping somewhere on Athenas? If someone was yelling, it meant that it was time for her to show the monks just how much she’d learned since her last outing, to prove that their years of training her hadn’t been wasted. 

Maya tried to move, but her limbs felt like they were made of lead, sinking into the ground beneath her. Was she on the ground? It felt too soft, but she didn’t think she was in a bed. Opening her eyes proved to be just as monumental a task, as they were stuck together, and something warm dripped into them, further obscuring her already fuzzy vision. All she could see was a mash of gray, red, and black.

Where was she? How did she get there? As she tried to blink the substance and blurriness from her eyes, Maya started to remember.

There was… a train. Yes, she had finally left Athenas after she killed Sophis, freeing herself from the Order’s corrupted clutches. What happened after she boarded the train? Everything was confusing. She remembered running through dark cars, and… that was it. Maya had met four other vault hunters on the train, and with them she had realized, too late, Hyperion’s duplicity, along with the car full of dynamite set to blow them to hell. The last thing she could recall was the deafening explosion, and then… nothing. 

But if the dynamite had detonated, then that meant that Maya was somewhere among the wreckage, somehow still alive. 

The more she woke up, the more she started to feel a migraine growing between her ears, splitting her head open as her brain attempted to both implode and explode at the same time. The prickling turned into stabbing pain, and the numbness into freezing cold, causing a spike of electricity to shoot throughout her body as her muscles began to violently shake, shivering in the icy wind. 

By the _ stars_, did it hurt. 

Eventually, the yelling grew closer, the sound of a shrill voice crying out for survivors. _ Gaige. _ Maya pulled in a breath, wincing at the pain in her ribs, and tried to respond to the voice. She let out a weak shout, but it was muffled by something pressing against her face. Wait, no, she was laying on her stomach, and she tasted snow when she opened her mouth. Gaige’s yelling was getting closer and closer, but then started to head away in a different direction. She could hear her speaking to someone, but she had no idea who it could’ve been.

Once again, Maya tried to call out to her, this time turning her head enough so that her voice wasn’t absorbed by the snow. Gaige paused, asking whoever she was with if they heard something, so Maya called out a third time, louder. 

“Oh, fuck, that’s Maya!” Gaige said. There was the sound of crunching snow as Gaige ran towards Maya’s location. “Maya! Where are you at? I can’t see you!”

“I’m here…” Maya tried to say, but it came out a strangled mumble. More shuffling, the sound of Gaige digging through something.

“Help me move this, she’s underneath!” Gaige said to her companion.

Maya heard the scrape of metal being moved, and weak light shone into her eyes as a hunk of siding from the train shifted out of her limited field of vision. 

“Shit! She’s pinned! We gotta get that off her, quick!”

Two pairs of legs stepped in front of her, the small, sneakered feet of Gaige and the heavy, fur-lined boots of Krieg. There was a series of grunting from both of them as they lifted the weight off of her. 

Gaige kneeled down next to her, placing a hand on her covered shoulder. “Maya! Maya, are you alright? Talk to me!”

She could only manage a pained moan.

“Fucking hell, that’s a lot of glass. Help me move her, I still have a few hypos left.”

A pair of large hands rolled Maya over onto her back, being as careful as possible to avoid touching the shrapnel. Suddenly, the very blurry outlines of Gaige and Krieg were looking down on her, the light fading from the sky above them. 

“I’m sorry, but this is gonna hurt, like, _ a lot.” _Gaige said as she pulled a pair of pliers from a bag on her hip and proceeded to dig the chunks of glass from her skin. 

She didn’t really have any time to prepare for the searing pain as Gaige plucked the shards out of her like a pomegranate, apologizing every time Maya grunted and cried out. Sweet almighty, how much damn glass was there? Her heart was pounding by the time the teen finished with her arm, and she was sweating profusely despite the cold as Gaige moved to her head and shoulder. 

Maya was only vaguely aware of Gaige speaking to Krieg, who then moved out of her sight, only to return moments later to press a needle full of red liquid into her arm, injecting small amounts at several different points. Once the last of the shrapnel was removed, Gaige gingerly lifted Maya’s head into her lap, turning her head to the side so Krieg could inject the rest of the needle’s contents where the shards had been. The liquid burned as it entered her bloodstream, but it quickly cooled to a more comfortable temperature as it spread throughout her body, warming her freezing muscles until the pain was reduced to a dull ache. 

The two kneeled on either side of Maya and watched her breathe heavily, sucking in air as she felt a bit of energy flood her system. Lifting her right hand to wipe the blood from her eyes, her vision finally started to clear. 

“Next time… let’s just… not get on the train…” She said, looking up at Gaige’s bloodied and bruised face. 

“Goddamn _ agreed. _ I’m never trusting those bastards again. How’re you feeling?”

“_Bad. _My head hurts like a motherfucker, but I’ll live. Probably.” 

“Can you get up?”

“Maybe…” Maya braced her arm against the ground, pushing herself up to sit. When she tried to stand, a wave of dizziness and nausea hit her, her headache intensifying, and she fell back into her seated position. “Oh, shit… Maybe. I’ve got a bit of a concussion, I think.”

“Damn it!” Gaige yelled, punching the snow with her metal fist. “Well, shit. We still need to find the others, too.” Ugh, that’s right. Maya wondered what had happened to Zer0 after they ran off. She hoped they hadn’t been as close to the blast as her, Krieg, and the poster boy had been. 

“I can do it, just give me a minute.” Maya said.

Gaige fixed her with a concerned look, but didn’t try to argue. “You’ve got an echo, right? Gimme your frequency so we can keep in contact if we get separated.” Maya obliged, pulling her echo from her storage deck and saving Gaige into her contacts. “Alright. I’m gonna try to find the others.” Gaige said, then promptly disappeared into the smoke. 

Maya sat for a minute or two, waiting for a bit of the nausea to clear before she tried to stand up again, only to fall to her hands and knees. No! She knew she shouldn’t try to push herself too much with her injuries, but she felt so helpless. Maya tried standing a third time, and managed to get to her feet before the dizziness tipped her back over. Krieg was at her side in a second, gripping her before she could hit the cold snow and ice.

“Oh, thank you. I’m sorry, I can do this, I just need a second.” Maya said, trying to get her shaking legs to work. 

Krieg made a low growling sound as Maya tried to step forward. Before she had time to react, he hooked one of his arms underneath her legs and picked her up, pulling her close to him as he started walking in the direction that Gaige had gone, taking care not to jostle her too much. 

Maya was unable to see his uncovered eye to gauge his mood, but she was pretty sure he was at least somewhat annoyed with her. “Um, thanks. Again.” She told him, feeling guilty that he’d been forced to carry her. Maya was a _ warrior, damn it_, she shouldn’t be the one in this position, she should be up helping Gaige search for the other vault hunters.

He grunted in response. 

Maya pulled her echo back out, glad for the heat that radiated from Krieg, as it warmed her enough to stop her shivering as she contacted Gaige.

“Have you had any luck finding them?” Maya asked as the connection crackled to life.

“I found Zer0 and Sal, but we haven’t found Axton yet.” Gaige said. “Were you able to stand?”

Axton? That must have been be the poster boy. “No, but Krieg was kind enough to offer some assistance. Where are you guys at?”

“I’ll send you my location. We’ll stop and wait for you two, it shouldn’t take too long for you to catch up.” The connection ended abruptly, but was soon followed by a _ ping _ notifying her of Gaige’s whereabouts. Maya opened up a map, showing it to Krieg so he could follow it to the others. 

Now that she was more awake and alert than she'd been a few moments ago, Maya was able to take in and process their surroundings.

They were surrounded by the remains of the Hyperion train, many of the cars torn into smoking, burning chunks, while several others had simply crashed into the ice. To her left, behind Krieg, she could see the remains of the rest of the train in the distance, hanging off the destroyed railway. 

Night had completely fallen at that point, their path forward lighted by the small fires from the wreckage and the green aurora beginning to glow among the countless luminous stars. The Pandoran nights were already brighter than what she was used to, but at that specific moment, she was glad for it.

After several minutes of picking their way through, they finally came up on the spot where Gaige and the others were. She was sitting on the edge of a hunk of metal, Sal was pacing nervously and wringing his hands, and Zer0 was standing calmly atop a pile of frozen trash. 

Sal was the first to see them approaching, his grim look softening marginally as he noticed them. “Hey! You finally made it! It’s good to see you two are still alive.”

“For now, at least.” Maya called over to the short man.

Gaige looked up, relief washing over her when she focused on them. “I sent Deathtrap out to look for Axton, he’ll show us where he’s at if he finds him.” She said. 

Krieg stopped a few feet from Gaige and Sal, but made no move to set Maya down like she thought he would. 

The temporary energy boost from the hypo didn’t last nearly as long as she’d expected, but at least it seemed to help with her nausea and headache, if not the dizziness. Ah, shit, she was tired, and the incessant warmth from Krieg wasn’t helping her stay awake, either. Maya leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes, listening to the other three speak as they discussed what to do once they found Axton. 

None of them mentioned the possibility that he might be dead, but she was pretty sure that they were all thinking it; of course, if Maya and Krieg had both survived the blast at that distance, then there was still hope for the soldier boy. 

Where were they, anyways? Maya had been under the impression that the train was headed for the city of Opportunity, but of course that had been a lie, along with the promise of working alongside Hyperion. She couldn’t believe how _ foolish _she’d been for going along with it when she knew damn well that Hyperion had put out a bounty for her. The fact that they all had, apparently, only made her feel a little better. Damn corporate cocksuckers. She was gonna feed that Handsome Jackass of a CEO his own teeth or die trying. 

Maya had started to drift off when she heard the unmistakable sound of Gaige yelling, startling her back to consciousness. She looked over to where the teen stood, shouting into her echo. Concentrating was a bit difficult, but it_ sounded _ like she was talking to the poster boy Axton, demanding to know where he was and if he was still alive. Well, that was kind of a useless thing to ask, since he obviously was alive if he was talking to her. Zer0 said something about going to get him, then did their weird disappearing act and vanished. 

The chatter died down again, and Maya drifted back off, this time sinking completely under the heady waves of sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways, I almost gave myself a panic attack while writing this 'cause I forgot I put cappuccino mix in my cocoa and couldn't figure out why my heart was racing. Whoops!


	6. A Symphony Of Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krieg has so many feelings, he's started having some feelings about them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems that working on this fic is the only thing keeping my anxiety at bay

Krieg regretted his decision to board the train. He regretted it the second they found the loaders, and he regretted it even more when he opened the door to find a car full of dynamite. Most of all, he regretted ever choosing to listen to the Little Man. The one time he decided to voluntarily go along with his asinine ideas, and it literally blew up in their shared face. 

He knew why he went along with it, and he hated it. He hated that the sight of the pretty blue lady made his heart race, hated that the smile she gave him at the station made his boiling blood simmer, hated that her pretty voice made his brain turn to mush. It was infuriating, and most of all, it made him want to kill something with a rock. Krieg only wanted the thrill of the kill, not the annoying heart palpitations that accompanied infatuation. 

Of fucking course, the Little Man just _ had _to wax poetic the second they laid eyes on her, mooning about how beautiful she was with her pretty blue lips and her pretty blue hair, droning on about how she could kill him without breaking a sweat using only her pretty blue tattoos spiraling down her lovely, creamy skin. AGH! The only color he wanted to drown in was the scarlet tide of life that splashed over him when he hunted, not the azure waves that lapped at the feet of the deadly siren, singing her airy song to lure him to death. 

But god, the music was too sweet to ignore, even for him. Sweeter than blood, burrowing into his head like a leach. Letting the Little Man spout his poetic monologues about feelings was _ almost _worth it if meant he got to spend another second looking at her thundering eyes.

Almost. 

Now, though, he would give anything to be back in the desert by himself. Alone, without the distracting siren scratching at the back of his mind. The desert was as close to home as he could get, and that, too, was gone. Just like everything else.

The explosion had thrown him free of the car he'd been running through, sending him flying into the biting wind of some glacier. 

As he sailed towards the icy ground, he watched that pretty army boy dramatically trying to grab onto something, anything to stop his fall, while the pretty siren lady was put through a window in the car's ceiling. A hunk of metal shaped suspiciously like a door smashed into her head, causing even more of her blood to flow free from their confines, painting the air. Krieg tried to reach for her, to grab onto her and save her from the inevitable fall, but she was too far away. The Little Man yelled for her, but there was nothing either of them could do.

Krieg hit the ice straight on, skidding across the rough, trash-laden ground, leaving a trail of skin and blood behind. The high-pitched ringing in his ears blocked out every other sound around him, leaving him dazed, confused, and sticking to the ice as his blood and bare skin froze to it. He wasn’t sure how long he laid there, fading in and out of consciousness, watching the scrapped remains of the train fly over and rain down around him. It was like God had finally sent his archangels down to wreak havoc upon the sinful. Upon him.

A small part of him hoped that a piece of the train would hit him, crushing his head like an ant under the merciful foot of God. For a moment, he wondered if there would ever be a place for him in heaven, if Saint Peter would welcome him at the gates, or if the devil himself had reserved a special place for him in hell by his side. Not that he actually believed in any of that, but old habits die hard. Just like him, apparently. 

When he was able to clear his head, Krieg slowly got up, bits of his skin peeling away from his left shoulder to stick to the ice. It was a gruesome sensation, but it spurred him forward all the same. 

He didn’t have time to marvel at the bloody fresco his body made against the ground, he had to find the pretty siren lady and the kid. Why did he suddenly care about them? Two hours ago, he didn’t even know they existed, but now here he was, picking himself up from the wreckage of a derailed train to _ search _for them. 

Of course his fingers had itched to kill when he first saw the vault hunters on the train; his hand had gripped his axe so hard his knuckles turned white, but the Little Man whispered threats in his ear, promising to take control and cut his throat if his axe even so much as _ touched _ any of them. They were _ friends, _ he said, _ they can help us, _ he said. 

Krieg didn’t _ need _ any help, least of all from some random treasure-hunting fools. The Little Man never even _ cared _ about vault hunting, or the over-confidant bastards that did it, but there was something about those specific fools on the train that just felt… off. They didn’t catch his vengeful eye like the bandits did, didn’t set the fire in his blood to a boil like the prey he usually hunted. The Little Man told him it was because they weren’t _ deserving, _ that they were _ innocent, _ as if there was a single innocent person to be _ found _ on Pandora. Krieg had stayed his hand, if only until he could prove the Little Man wrong.

That kid, though… she didn’t even look like she should be out on her own, much less on Pandora. Something inexplicable and heavy and _ sad _ settled in his ribcage when he saw her, when he heard the way she enthusiastically rattled off questions. She hadn’t even been _ phased _ when he raised his voice and slipped into his second tongue; normally people found the glottal speech to be terrifying when coupled with his intense, booming timbre. What a weird kid… 

In any case, Krieg could feel the blood slowly dripping down his flesh as he lumbered through the crash site, searching for his axe. Thankfully, it hadn’t strayed far from him, having landed in a snow drift some three meters away. He shook the snow from the blade, then slipped the handle through the harness on his back. It suddenly occurred to him to check for something, and he smacked the back pocket of his pants to make sure he hadn’t lost his comb. Good, it was still there. 

Despite the fact that it had only been a third of the way through a daytime cycle when he reached the station, the sun was already setting below the horizon. Krieg wasn’t entirely familiar with the rotation habits of the planet, but perhaps they had simply gone far enough that they entered a completely different time zone. Krieg spent _months_ making his way north, and now he had been thrust back even further south he’d originally been, all in the space of _an hour_. It was bullshit. 

_ It’s gonna be a long night, _the Little Man whispered in his ear.

Krieg meandered along, winding his way through the wreckage as he searched for the pretty siren. 

A humming noise caught his attention somewhere to his side. Thinking it to be another _ fucking _loader, he readied his axe, only to be met with the sight of the kid’s robot floating through the smoke. It made a beeping noise when it spotted him, and the kid’s high voice peeled from a speaker attached to it. 

“KRIEG! Thank god you’re ok. Stay right where you are, I’m making my way towards you.”

...Ok? He put his axe back into the harness and stared at the robot, trying to figure out what kind of make it was. It didn’t look like it was based off the typical loader design that most of the corporations used, but if the knowledge and memories from the Little Man proved correct, it appeared to be surprisingly well-made. Did she steal a prototype? That poetry ninja had said they were all wanted, so maybe that was the kid’s crime. How the hell would a _ kid _ manage to do that? _ Why? _

His thoughts were interrupted by the kid sprinting through the smoke behind the robot, throwing herself at Krieg to wrap her scrawny arms around his waist.

What the fuck? Why the hell was Gaige hugging him? Krieg was caught severely off guard and didn’t know what to do, so he just stood there until she finally decided to let go. 

She looked up at him, her tiny face covered in scrapes, a large bruise growing around an eye. Her pigtails had come loose, leaving her already messy hair a veritable rat’s nest of ash and blood. “Have you found any of the others? I haven’t seen any of them. What the hell happened to the train? One moment I was shooting bots with Sal, the next thing I know, I’m hurtling through the sky! I had to have Deathtrap catch me so I didn’t die!”

Guess the pretty boy hadn’t had time to warn the other two about the dynamite. “Boomtown came to visit for a bloody barbecue.” He said, his aching growls made ragged from the smoke he’d been inhaling. Krieg had half hoped that the respirator would filter the smoke out, but he guessed it was rendered kind of useless since there was a goddamn hole in his mask.

She looked confused for a few seconds before understanding dawned on her. Why were they all so perplexed by his words? They made complete sense, the others just didn’t see the beauty in them, didn’t know how to dig through the meat down to the bones. Even the Little Man complained that it was just rambling nonsense… none of them _ understood. _

“There was a bomb on the train?” She asked, trying to verify that she grasped his meaning. Krieg nodded. 

The kid had her robot follow from a distance while the two of them set off. Good god, the crash site just kept on _ going. _

It was at least 20 minutes before they found anyone else. The kid had stopped dead in her tracks, asking Krieg if he’d heard anything. He hadn’t, as his ears were still ringing, and the quiet voices made it hard to pick up anything real. Gaige’s expression turned to shock. “Oh fuck, that’s Maya!” She said, running off towards where he assumed the sound had come from.

_ Maya?! _ The siren. Krieg ran after the kid.

“Maya! Where are you at? I can’t see you!” Gaige yelled, frantically looking around the piles of scrap. 

Krieg heard a weak noise emanating from underneath a smoking piece of the train’s siding. 

“Help me move this, she’s underneath!” Krieg didn’t need to be told twice, grabbing the sheet and moving it to the side. 

_Oh god, oh fuck, oh_ _shit! _The Little Man was chattering incessantly as Krieg stared down at Maya, who was laying face down in the snow with her right arm above her head, blood seeping from various lacerations into the snow, turning it into a coppery smoothie that, for once, made his stomach turn. A large, twisted chunk of metal was on top of her back, pinning her down.

“Shit! She’s pinned! We gotta get that off her, quick!”

Krieg planted his feet into the snow, bracing himself as he gripped the metal and lifted it up. The kid was next to him, trying to help as best she could. It was tough, but eventually Krieg was able to push it off of her, the metal crashing to the side.

The kid leaned down to talk to Maya, directing Krieg to roll her over. He did as she asked. She was shivering, her skin pale and freezing to the touch from lying in the snow for so long. Blood and sweat ran down her forehead as Gaige removed the glass from her tattooed arm. 

“Can you grab a hypo from Deathtrap’s storage? Maya’s gonna need it.” The kid asked him. Krieg stood and looked around for the robot, then fumbled as he tried to open the storage deck installed in it. Once he retrieved one of the sterile, red needles, he kneeled next to Gaige, who had moved to focus on Maya’s head and shoulder, and carefully pushed the tip into her skin, trying to avoid causing her any more pain than she was probably already in. 

The kid had to move to Maya’s right side so Krieg could get to the wounds further up, the flesh creeping back together as the medicine worked it’s magic, some of the color returning to her. 

Krieg wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about the situation; on the one hand, he was kind of relieved that she was still alive and kicking, but on the other hand, he was severely annoyed that he was relieved. He didn’t _ want _ to care about her, he didn’t _ want _ his heart to pound out of chest at the thought of her life slipping away as she lay in front of him. He wanted to go back to earlier when the only thing that bothered him was whether or not he’d find someone to kill, not someone to _ save. _ The Little Man praised him for helping her, for taking the effort to be _ gentle_, but the words left him indignant, to put it lightly. 

The pretty siren tried to stand, but she claimed she’d suffered from a concussion. It made sense, considering metal that hit her head during the explosion had left a gnarly mark on her temple, not to mention the fall itself had to have done some damage. 

Maya and Gaige exchanged a few words, then the kid got up and ran back into the smoke to find the other fools, leaving Krieg to watch as the siren tried, and failed, to get her legs under her. She had a rather dissatisfied look in her eyes that grew into frustration as her knees buckled.

It wasn’t anything he’d meant to do, but Krieg automatically rushed to steady her before she fell back into the snow. 

“Oh, thank you. I’m sorry, I can do this, I just need a second.” She told him, sounding angry at the position she was in. Was she mad at _ him? _ The Little Man wasn’t entirely sure, but he didn’t want Krieg to let go, lest she be even more upset at his disregard. 

Krieg wanted to yell at the Little Man, tell him to go away and stop fucking _ bothering _ him, but he didn’t want to end up shouting into the siren’s ear, so he settled on just growling at him. The Little Man seemed to take the clue, shrinking back without another word as he let Krieg be.

He frowned. She wasn’t exactly in any fit state to be doing anything, much less walking straight, anytime soon. Krieg scowled under his mask as he picked Maya up, not wanting to waste any more time watching her fumble, or so he told himself. 

He set off to follow the kid, quiet as he listened to the pretty lady speak over her echo. She pulled open a vague map of the area, holding it up so Krieg could follow it to the blipping dot that marked the kid’s location. God _ damn, _ did he hate digital maps. 

Krieg silently fumed as he walked through the snow, angry at himself and the Little Man for getting into their situation. If only he’d stayed in the town. If only he had followed through with the decision to get blackout drunk again, then he wouldn’t have to worry about any of this shit, wouldn’t have to worry about trudging along, carrying a strong… capable… beautiful… _ enchanting _… he forgot where he was going with that thought, but he was still upset, nonetheless. 

Gaige was with the short man and the poetry ninja. Krieg briefly considered putting Maya down and letting her try her luck at standing again, but knowing head injuries, he knew he shouldn't. He stood and stared out at the smoke swirling into the sky, the grey tendrils dissipating as they reached for the stars. The others were talking about something, but he didn’t care enough to bother listening, focusing instead on the warm skin of the pretty siren’s tattooed arm pressing against him, the way she leaned her cheek on his shoulder and sighed wearily, the steady rhythm of her breathing.

Why was he still there? Krieg had half a mind to dump the siren into the snow and leave the vault hunting fools to their absurd business. He had no interest in chasing fairy tales of alien artifacts, only the sickly sweet thrill of sinking his axe into the head of whatever poor, unfortunate sod dared cross his path. The Little Man wouldn’t let him kill _these_ fools; he had a tight grip on the chain he kept wrapped around Krieg’s neck, always keeping him collared and restrained like some rabid animal. And what if he was? Why should he care? It’s not like anyone ever cared about him. Well, maybe there was _one_… but she was gone, left behind in the castle of agony where she’d birthed him, digging him from the subconscious of the Little Man with her shiny soul-stabbers and liquid madness, raising him up to glory. 

The kid started shouting something he didn’t care about, causing the siren to jerk in his arms. She shifted a bit, then rested her cheek back against his shoulder. It only took a few minutes for her breathing to even out and slow, indicating that she’d passed out. Hmph. What did she think he was, a bed? Odd as it was, he couldn’t seem to bring himself to resent the thought.

Too soon, the Little Man felt the need to return, continuing his ceaseless rambling. 

“Shut _ up.” _He muttered to the annoying voice. 

The only good thing about the glacier was that the cold wind kept his burning blood from overtaking him. He’d accidentally gone up in flames several times while in the desert, and while he was rather fond of the flickering flames, the act tended to _ burn _ a lot of calories, effectively wasting energy he couldn’t really afford to lose. How long had it been since he’d eaten those rations? Several hours, at the least. The hunger had started to return, but he doubted there’d be anything for him to scavenge, much less hunt, on the frigid glacier. How long until he eventually succumbed to starvation? Months? Weeks? Days? The Little Man was right about one thing: he wouldn’t last much longer on his current path. He’d already lost a concerning amount of weight since he’d been free, and he didn’t like the thought of his body consuming his organs and muscle mass in order to feed itself. 

And then it dawned on him that if he wanted to survive, he’d probably have to follow the vault hunters. Oh, for God’s sake… 

_ We’ll have more luck finding food and shelter with them than on our own. _

Damn it! Krieg didn’t _ want _a reason to stay with them! He hated it when the Little Man made sense! Shithead… 

_ If we go with them, we might be able to stay by the siren’s side. _

Another good point, he begrudgingly accepted. Krieg’s face set into a heavy glare, disgruntled.

He was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of someone shouting his name.

“Hey, Krieg! You comin’ or what, dude?” Gaige and the others had started walking off, joined by the pretty army boy, who was limping quite severely, and a small, box-shaped robot. Christ, was that a claptrap unit? Just what he needed, a headache to add to his already shitty evening. Krieg sighed laboriously and started after them, the pretty siren still sleeping.

The six of them followed the claptrap unit away from the trainwreck towards what appeared to be the ruins of some kind of safe-house, surrounded by trash and countless dead claptrap husks. At least he hoped they were all dead; he didn’t enjoy the thought of having to deal with more than one claptrap unit. 

As the annoying little robot led them to the building, it chattered about how the CEO of Hyperion, “Handsome Jack,” as he called himself, sent every vault hunter he could find to the glacier to kill them. 

Handsome Jack… the name made his blood run cold, eliciting an automatic rage response in him. Yes, he knew who Jack was. Or he thought he did. There were vague memories of a man named Jack gloating over him, getting close enough to taunt and antagonize Krieg, but always staying just outside of his reach… too bad. If there was anyone he wanted to kill, it was _ him. _He wanted to show Jack what was under the mask, something even he didn’t know, to open his mouth wide and dig his teeth into the bastard’s neck, to rip his throat out and hear his wet screaming as he bled all over him. Even the Little Man wanted to show that jackass just how much of a monster he really was. 

The claptrap brought them before a door, unlocking it using a digital scanner, then ushering them into the building through an icy entryway. Krieg had been the last one in, but the short man noticed how his hands were full and closed it for him.

Before Krieg could proceed into the main room of the building, the short man stopped him.

“Hey, man, I know we haven’t officially met, yet, but, ah… you doin’ ok? You ain’t lookin’ too hot, hermano.” He asked, a concerned look on his face. What was his name? Sal? It didn’t matter. Why was he calling him that? _I am not your Brother_, Krieg thought.

He had no idea how to answer the question, feeling stumped and at a loss for words. He really just wanted some food and a place to take a piss.

“The clawing, gnawing thirst leaks from my skin and feasts its bloody jaws upon my burning insides.” He told him. The short man caught on far quicker than the others had, nodding as he processed the response. 

“I feel you, there, amigo. Been a while since I last had a decent meal.” He clapped Krieg on the shoulder that wasn’t occupied by Maya’s head, then walked away towards the others. 

Inside the safehouse was just as filthy as the outside, the floor and walls were littered with trash, corpses, and somehow more claptrap units.

_ This must be where the robot lives. How cozy. _

Sure, that was one way to put it. For a home filled with corpses, there was a shocking lack of blood. How unfortunate. 

A large furnace occupied the wall opposite the doorway Krieg stood under, cold and empty save for a small pile of ripped cardboard. To his left, the vault hunters stood around in another connected area and listened to the claptrap unit. To the right, there were a couple of broken couches. He walked over to one of them and kicked the frozen corpses off, setting Maya down onto the stinking, flat cushions. The claptrap kept on talking. 

Krieg was about to get up and walk over to the others when it occurred to him that the glacier was probably freezing to everyone that wasn’t a robot or… him. He went around the room and gathered what few flammable objects he could find, then kneeled in front of the furnace and carefully arranged them inside. 

Now, this was the hard part. Krieg was used to the fire coming out on it’s own, but he never really tried to bring it out intentionally. Maybe if he could focus it into one specific point… 

He slowly breathed in and out, trying to make his blood boil enough for him to light the furnace. Lifting his mask a bit, Krieg moved his head closer to the tinder, pulled in a deep breath, then put his lips together and blew out, a small jet of flame catching the cardboard. 

_ Whoa… that was… pretty damn cool, dude. I didn’t know we could do that. _

Neither did Krieg. He pulled the mask back down, a smug smirk tugging at the edge of his mouth. 

Moving back over to the couch where he’d set Maya, Krieg sat on his knees and inspected the temple where she’d been hit; a large, discolored bruise had blossomed over the area, and a splattering of dried blood crusted over where the skin had split. The lacerations on her arm from the glass had mostly closed, thanks to the hypo, but they were still pink and tender, indicating that they needed more time to heal. She would live.

It was strange, he thought, that although the glass had cut directly through the tattoos, their designed was still unmarred, like the markings themselves had healed along with her skin instead of being interrupted by the wounds. 

_ If she was born with her siren powers and tattoos, then it stands to reason that the tattoos themselves aren’t just ink. Since they light up when she uses her powers, they must be either a physical manifestation of her abilities, or the conduit through which she channels them. Either way, I don't think they can be affected the way normal tattoos can. _

That… made sense, he supposed. It was hardly the weirdest thing he'd seen.

He thought back to the train, recalling how the Little Man had scolded him for shouting in his second tongue. He didn’t want Krieg to scare the siren, or the kid, for that matter, but neither of them had seemed bothered; just confused. 

Resting his hands over his knees, Krieg watched her face for a moment as she slept.

Maya… that was the name she’d given him as she’d reached her hand out towards him. Krieg couldn’t remember a time in his short life where someone had showed that level of consideration towards him as a person. Oh, certainly the Little Man had plenty of memories like that, but Krieg… all he had was the light, painful touch of the Mother and her gleaming tools, always so clean, _ so sharp _, then the hard strikes of the coward that hid behind her. 

The Little Man had threatened to turn his brain to jelly if he didn’t properly shake her hand. When he grasped her slender, delicate fingers, the memory of a what a disgusting sap the Little Man had been rose to the surface, driving him to bring her hand up to his mouth before he knew what he was doing. He didn’t want to take the mask off, but he wasn’t a goddamn quitter, so he made the most of the situation. Krieg wasn’t entirely sure where the rhyming had come from, either; the words had just sounded nice, even if they weren’t the colorful, fleshy adjectives he preferred to use. He hated being tender, but maybe if he could just get the blue lady to understand… 

Krieg had hoped the siren would see the meaning behind the words, but like everyone else, she had merely been confused. It annoyed him, but he couldn’t bring himself to direct the anger towards her, even though her foolish eyes of balled lightning were the cause. 

He could still feel the light ghost of the siren's skin pressing against his own, her warm cheek soft compared to his scared and rough flesh. The contact, however brief, made him painfully aware of a… what was it called? There was a phrase from the Little Man's memories that described it, he just needed to find it…

Skin hunger. The brief contact with the siren made Krieg painfully aware of how severely touch-starved he was, made his skin feel like it was going to slough off of his body if he didn't touch another person soon. But no, he didn't _want _ to touch anyone, he didn't _want_ anyone to put their nasty hands on him. 

All those hours restrained and chained, cut off from everyone except the Mother and her cold hands and even colder steel, then all those days in the wilderness, with no one but the ravenous fauna and the bloodthirsty bandits to keep him company. Two or three of the more… _outgoing _bandits had craved a different kind of flesh, but that was hardly what _Krieg _wanted. It was never what _he_ craved. 

Why did he have to deal with the Little Man's problems? Krieg didn’t like them, he wanted to go back to not caring about other people. He didn't want to care about the beautiful blue woman.

Maybe the starvation and dehydration was just making him weak-minded.

Maybe he just needed to kill someone.

His fingers twitched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, a complete chapter from the Big Guy's POV


	7. Moonlight Reveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claptrap isn't exactly a good host, but he does his best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agh, I'm so sorry this chapter took so long! I had mouth surgery on the 7th, and as you can imagine, I've been a little, uhhh, under the weather since then lol

Liar’s Berg was a shithole. Krieg had thought the last town was bad, but Liar’s Berg was… definitely something, to be sure. 

Situated along a cliff-side overlooking a frozen harbor, the town had been heavily snowed on, frozen, dug up, sacked by bandits, abandoned, overrun by bullymongs, and then buried under yet more snow. And now there were even _ more _bandits. 

After Claptrap, the rambunctious little robot that lived out on the glacier, found and led them to his house, he’d gone on a little tirade about Handsome Jack. Apparently the egotistical maniac had completely destroyed his entire product line and left him on the glacier to die, along with the frozen bodies of countless unfortunate vault hunters.

The plan was to help Claptrap reclaim his ship so they could get back to the mainland. To Sanctuary. 

He’d heard of Sanctuary, “the last stronghold of the resistance” as it was commonly known as. Bandits considered the place to be bad luck, while Hyperion simply labeled it a den of iniquity and banditry unworthy of existing. Krieg wasn’t entirely sure what the innocent residents of Pandora thought of it, truth be told, since he usually tried to steer the big guy away from non-hostile settlements. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to seek help from them, he just didn’t want to risk letting the other guy loose where he could harm innocents. 

Well, that _ had _ been the plan up until a raging behemoth of a bullymong broke in through the roof and stole Claptrap’s eye in the middle of the night. The robot sent them to find and retrieve the eye, which devolved into Krieg, Sal, and Gaige’s Deathtrap mowing down a small horde of bullymongs. The other guy was delighted to have something flesh and blood to kill, to work out some of his pent-up aggression. It didn’t satisfy him as much as killing people, but the 'mongs’ status of _ primate _ set them pretty damn close. 

Gaige wanted to go with them, but the gun Claptrap gave her was the first one she’d ever held, and none of them were eager to see her shoot herself in the leg because she forgot to turn the safety on. The tall vault hunter, the assassin, volunteered to stay and give her shooting lessons while they waited. 

Although it was still some time before sunrise, any clouds and smoke in the sky had cleared, allowing the stars to shine through and the moon to illuminate the landscape with its silvery glow.

The 'mongs led them to the behemoth who possessed the eye; Claptrap called him Knuckledragger, and for good reason: he had enormous fists, even for a bullymong, and was prone to scraping them across the ground, launching ice and trash at their heads. 

Knuckledragger had been a special treat for the big guy, as he hadn’t had the chance to fight an enemy that big, or smart, in weeks. Not only that, but the big guy used the opportunity to try to breathe fire again, pushing the mask up enough for the fire to escape his mouth, jettisoning out two or three meters into Knuckledragger’s tiny face. It was a smashing success, much to Krieg’s satisfaction and Sal’s unrestrained joy, who demanded to know how he did it as they strolled back to Claptrap’s place. 

The big guy could only laugh hysterically. 

Krieg wasn’t entirely sure how he did it, either; certainly, he could feel the fire burning underneath his skin, could feel it seep through his pores when the flames rose too high, but he didn’t know _ how. _ He suspected it had to do with the slag, but slag caused madness and mutations, not Chronic Burning Man Syndrome. Maybe there was something he was missing? That usually seemed to be the case.

Normally he would be displeased by the other guy finding a new way to hurt and kill, but this newfound skill meant that he was making _ progress, _that he was gaining some control over himself again, even if the other guy was the one piloting. He hoped it wasn’t just the cold climate that allowed him this little bit of mastery.

When they returned, they found Claptrap in front of the furnace, the wires in his socket sparking as he chatted with Maya and the soldier. Maya was curled up in a corner of the couch where Krieg had left her, covered by a ratty chunk of fabric and holding a cup full of steaming liquid, while the soldier was sprawled out next to her with his own makeshift blanket and mug.

Sal had held up the robot’s eye by the wires, dramatically shaking it around as he announced their return. Claptrap collapsed onto his back with a groan, complaining about everything spinning. 

Once he recovered from his vertigo, Claptrap instructed them to find a man named Hammerlock in the nearby town, stating that he would gladly repair the eye. 

Before they could leave, however, Gaige returned from the back entrance, toting her new, albeit shitty, gun and rattling off a story to the ninja assassin beside her. She saw Claptrap's eye in Sal's hand and immediately stopped her story, rushing over to the little robot's side, begging that he let her fix him. 

It had taken a significant amount of conviction to persuade Gaige to let the "professional," as Claptrap put it, handle the delicate procedure. Gaige was huffy, but quickly got over it. To make it up to her, Sal let her accompany them to Liar's Berg. 

Once again, Maya had stayed behind with Claptrap, the assassin, and that soldier dude, her concussion still affecting her ability to fight. Krieg had overheard her talking with the assassin earlier, mentioning that the head injury made it difficult for her to focus her siren powers, leaving her with a splitting migraine every time she tried. 

He could easily understand how frustrating something like that could be; here she was, a trained warrior, stuck on the sidelines when she was otherwise in good condition. Krieg just hoped it didn't leave any lasting damage.

That last vault hunter, the cute little military guy, had sustained some pretty nasty injuries, himself. Apparently, when Deathtrap found him, he'd been laying in a pool of his own blood, a metal pipe embedded in his gut; the only thing that had saved him from bleeding out was the assassin's initiative and the hypo needles in Deathtrap's emergency kit. Unfortunately, there was only so much of the medicine in the hypos that one person could take at a time, meaning they had to almost drag his battered body through the snow. 

There was something about his pretty face that gave Krieg a sense of deja vu… 

The path to Liar's Berg had been treacherous, littered with more angry bullymongs and slick ice; all of them had nearly slipped down the side of a cliff into icy water dozens of meters below. At one point, they came upon a Hyperion barge blocking their way, which they were unable to open. After several minutes of fiddling with the controls, Gaige punched the metal siding in frustration, causing the door to lock itself even further, and prompting Gaige to scream and kick the bars sliding into place.

What Krieg didn't understand was why after her outburst, his two companions stopped dead in their tracks to stare in confusion at the barge. Moments later, the reinforced door slowly unlocked, the heavy bars retreating away into their compartments. 

The way was open. 

Krieg was no technician, by any means, but even he knew that that… probably shouldn't have happened. Did the locking mechanism glitch out or something? He didn't know, and the other two didn't seem to think it important enough to include him in their hushed conversation afterwards. 

Past the barge was a steep, winding trail down to Liar's Berg. Krieg went first, using his axe to gouge marks into the icy patches for traction, followed by Sal, then Gaige. A half hour of grueling climbing later, they made it to the town's collapsed gates, only to be greeted by the sound of gunfire, followed by a bullet lodging itself into Krieg's bicep. Caught off guard, he stumbled back a step out of surprise. 

"YOU MISSED MY FLESHY CENTER, COME TRY IT AGAIN!" The other guy shouted, breaking into a sprint towards the town. Sal wasn't far behind him, hollering as he joined Krieg. 

They were met with a group of bandits, which the other guy was more than happy to introduce to his buzz-axe, slicing and hacking like it was Christmas. Krieg wasn't entirely sure where Gaige had gone, but he could hear her shit-talking the bandits somewhere behind him. 

The bullet wound burned and screamed like a bitch, especially when he lifted his arm above his head, but pain never stopped the big guy before; no, he seemed to enjoy it, gleefully shrieking at the feeling of metal moving around in the muscle, grating against the nerves and stoking the fire ever higher. Krieg was glad that the freezing wind cooled the pain-fueled heat enough to keep him from igniting, as he didn't want his new companions to be put off by his… quirks. 

Surely, if they knew the extent of his monstrosity, they'd leave him behind, leave him out in the freezing cold to die, whether it be from hypothermia, infection, frostbite, a bullet to the head, starvation, dehydration, malnutrition, mauled by bullymongs, exhaustion, torn apart by rakks… the list was endless. Maybe they'd even kill him themselves. 

But that wouldn't be such a bad way to go, mercifully put down by the only people on Pandora with any sense remaining. He'd probably thank them, too, for finally ending his miserable excuse of a life, for stopping the rampage of the other guy before he ripped free from Krieg's tentative restraint. The only issue would be wrestling enough control to keep the big guy in line for them to pull the trigger. Maybe Maya would be able to restrain him with her siren abilities, trapping him in that glowing sphere of slag-like energy, so loud, so alien, so familiar… 

Lost in his thoughts, Krieg was vaguely aware of the other guy slowing to a stop. Sliding back into focus, he found he was standing in front of a tall electrified gate, Gaige and Sal a few feet away talking to a dark-skinned mustachioed man, entirely out of place on the glacier with his put-together look and well-groomed facial hair.

The man stood at a panel behind the gate, and soon the power running through it ceased and the metal was hoisted upwards. He introduced himself as Sir Alistair Hammerlock, hunter, scholar, and gentlemen, the very man that Claptrap had sent them to find. Krieg thought he was rather handsome in a sort of regal, weathered kind of way, what with his traditional adventurer’s attire and composed posture. His right arm and leg were prosthetic, designed to resemble an old trend valuing the elegance of machinery; "steampunk", he believed it was called. It suited him well. 

Krieg's companions choppily explained the situation to Sir Hammerlock, causing him to roll a few fingertips across his chin.

"Yes, I suppose I am in your debt now, aren’t I, considering how you took care of Flynt's men." He said with a sigh. "Very well. Let me get my tools together, and I shall make my way to Claptrap's home. In the meantime, if you would be so kind as to assist me once more, I would be very appreciative." Flynt? That must be the local bandit leader. 

"Whatcha need, Mr. Fancypants?" Gaige asked. Krieg didn't find the clearly joking remark to be all that funny or respectful, but the big guy snorted. 

Thankfully, Sir Hammerlock didn't seem phased by it. "I'm sure you have noticed by now, but the town of Liar's Berg has a bit of a bullymong infestation. Their presence makes it increasingly more difficult to get any work done, and now with the recent festivities, they are sure to become even more belligerent, not to mention they trample all over the memory of the fine people who used to call this place home."

Sal scratched the back of his head. "So, what, you want us to kill them for you?" 

"Indeed! I would be more than happy to pay you for your service." 

There really wasn't much to think about once he said that; Sal and Gaige immediately agreed, no doubt thrilled by the prospect of killing more stuff _ and _getting paid for it.

"Excellent! I shall collect my things at once, and when the bullymongs are gone, we shall all make the ascent together."

Sir Hammerlock directed them to where the bullymongs had built their nests, then turned and disappeared into the building behind the gate.

Krieg followed the other two at a distance, listening to the other guy mumble and rant about Sir Hammerlock's posh way of speaking. He didn't _ think _ he had anything against the man, but the other guy had been known to hold some unpredictable opinions. Krieg, for one, thought he seemed like a respectable, pleasant fellow, though he highly doubted that his own actions would ever reflect that.

There weren’t nearly as many bullymongs in Liar’s Berg as the path to the town, but they were much larger and angrier. The big guy desperately wanted to capitalize on their newfound fire-breathing and toast as many bullymongs as he could, but the bastards moved around too much; he couldn't get an opportunity to shift the mask enough as well as hit his targets.

Within another hour, the last of the ‘mongs had been taken care of. When they returned to Sir Hammerlock, they found him standing at the previously electrified gate with a bag of tools. 

He noticed them approaching and turned with a salute. "Well done! I say, that was some mighty fine hunting. Here, your agreed upon payment.” Sir Hammerlock set his bag down and handed each of them a small stack of money. The other guy accepted it without question, but Krieg could tell he was feeling very indifferent about it, and he couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t really needed to use money in the last few months, so he just never carried any. Sure, he could have amassed a small fortune from the shear amount of bandits he’d killed and camps he’d looted, but he always skimmed over money. 

_ Hmm… I guess if we’re going to go with them to Sanctuary, back to civilization, then we’ll need to start actually keeping money on us. _

The other guy narrowed his eyes as he stared at the paper.

_ Just shove it into the bag on our leg, and we can figure out a better solution later. _

The big guy grunted, reaching down to open the small brown pouch wrapped around his left thigh, folding and cramming the money inside. Gaige and Sal both had the luxury of storage decks, meaning all of their money was automatically stored into them. Boy, wouldn’t _ that _have been nice to have out in the desert; he could’ve used it to store food, water, maybe any medical supplies he could find, hell, even his buzz-axe so he wasn’t constantly dragging it around. It was a little too late now, though.

This time, they had Gaige go up the trail first, followed by Sir Hammerlock, Sal, and Krieg at the end. The march up was much less time consuming than going down, but only because Krieg had already marked the ice. 

After they reached the top and passed the barge, Sir Hammerlock told them about how he’d been looking to do research on wildlife for an almanac he was writing, but had been trapped in Liar’s Berg for days while Captain Flynt, the notorious local bandit king, sent his men to harass him and occupy the town. He also had a thing or two to say about the numerous ‘mong corpses littering the way, complimenting the vault hunters on trimming their numbers. 

As they walked, the other guy and poked and prodded at the hole in his arm, digging a finger into the bloody wound and trying to fish the bullet out. 

_What the hell, man, can't you just wait and ask the others to help? That fucking_ hurts.

Somehow he managed to pop the small chunk of metal out. Krieg didn't know how he managed it, considering the bullet was _tiny _and his fingers were significantly less so, but he did it. Either way, he was left with searing, aching pain and a generous amount of blood dripping down his arm into his metal brace. He would have loved to put up a fight and demand that the other guy at least try to wrap the wound, but he knew there was no use. It wouldn't take long for the wound to start to heal, anyways. 

When they reached the remains of Knuckledragger, scorched and smelling as it basked in the moonlight, Sir Hammerlock let out a whooping shout and jogged up to his carcass. “I say, would it be too bold of me to presume that you good people are responsible for the death of this furry juggernaut?” He asked, squatting a few steps away from the bullymong’s burnt fists. 

“You’re damn right we did!” Sal said with a hearty laugh, slapping Krieg’s back in an act of camaraderie. 

Krieg tensed up, the other guy recoiling at the unexpected contact, eyes narrowing and lifting his lip in a snarl, a barely audible growl escaping his throat.

_ Oh, no._

Sal didn’t seem to notice; if he did, he didn’t show it.

Krieg stood fixed in place for several moments, watching Sal and Gaige join Sir Hammerlock in front of Knuckledragger. He wanted to know what they were saying about the fight, about him, but Krieg was too busy trying to calm the other guy down. His heart rate had jumped when Sal smacked him, blood rushing through his ears, the muscles in his back tensing further as he anticipated the cold sting of metal to follow, and the sadistic cackling as the asshole responsible watched him bleed and shake. The voices whispered hissing threats to him, deranged promises of forgotten insults and injuries. 

_ We’re not in there anymore. We’re outside. They’re gone. You’ll never have to see them ever again. They can’t hurt us anymore. _

He was trying to convince the big guy just as much as himself, trying to keep him from digging his fingers into the spot Sal had touched, trying to keep the heat from engulfing him. For a brief second, he thought he could feel a few tendrils of flame snake their way up his ankles from the soles of his feet.

_ It’s going to be ok. Sal is a friend… a friend. He’s not going to hurt us. _

God, he hoped he was right about that. He hoped the vault hunters wouldn’t be doing much of _that _in the future, but if his impression of the short berserker was accurate, then he didn’t dare hold any expectations. 

Slowly, the other guy started to relax incrementally. The fire dissipated as he took in a few deep breaths, filling his lungs with the crisp, cold breeze, so different from the sterile, undisturbed room-temperature air of that… place, the hot breath blown into his face, unable to…

Krieg felt a moderate amount of confusion, his brain fogging for a moment as he stared into empty space.

...What was he thinking about?

It didn’t matter. The others had started back off and were already several meters ahead of him by the time the other guy moved to follow them.

What was that about? Sir Hammerlock had been inspecting Knuckledragger’s body, and then… he couldn’t remember; there was a short gap in between him stopping and catching up with the others. Had he just zoned out? No, that couldn’t be it… But maybe… there was something… 

The other guy brought a hand up to the side of his head, all but slapping himself as Krieg tried to recall what he’d been thinking of. “Keep the memories down… _ down, Little Man. _” He hissed, the unspoken threat of further violence hanging off his tongue. 

_ Oh, so THAT’S what’s going on… fine. You can’t keep me in the dark forever, you know. I’ll remember someday… and you won’t be able to stop me. _

The other guy growled as he brought his hands back up, digging nails into his skin, dragging them slowly, painfully down the back of his head. 

Hmph. Krieg knew when to stop, knew when to back away and lay off the other guy. He wasn’t happy about the situation, but it wasn’t worth getting into an altercation with him now, especially not when they were already coming up on Claptrap’s house. 

He was the last one inside, having maintained a decent distance from the others since they left Knuckledragger behind, but Sal stayed at the doorway, keeping it propped open for him as he stepped inside. The short man gave Krieg a terse nod before joining the other vault hunters. 

It was strange; most people Krieg had… _ encountered _… on Pandora had either been weak and afraid, struggling to survive, or ruthless, spineless bastards that would sell their own brother if it got them a sack of cash and a feeling of superiority, but these vault hunters… there was something different about them. He couldn’t remember the context attached to the feelings, but Krieg never really cared for vault hunting, never saw the appeal of tracking down mythical caches of alien treasure and wealth. It was a fool’s errand, as far as he cared, resulting in death and failure more often than success. 

However, he sensed that there was something more to these hunters, something that set them apart from the usual herd. Krieg couldn’t remember if he had ever actually met other vault hunters before, or if he’d only heard tales of them, but the five over in the next room were very real, and it didn’t take an educated eye to know that they were something special.

As the big guy walked over to view the room where Claptrap lay, sprawled out in front of the blazing furnace while Sir Hammerlock carefully set his tools out, Krieg wondered, not for the first time, how he’d ever managed to get into this particular situation. 

Sitting on his knees with his back to the furnace, Sir Hammerlock looked up at the vault hunters and Krieg. “Well, now that we are all here, and Claptrap is unconscious, perhaps introductions are in order, no?” The others murmured in agreement.

“Wonderful!” He said, sitting back on his heels. “As I am sure you already know, I am Sir Alistair Hammerlock. I came to this glacier some few weeks ago to research bullymongs for my almanac, but, as I’m sure you can no doubt see, that did not exactly go as planned.” He placed his prosthetic hand over his chest in a sort of salute, then gestured to whoever was nearest to him, which happened to be Sal, hovering to Krieg’s left before grabbing a crate to sit. 

The short man cleared his throat, straightening his back. “My name is Salvador Belmonte. I’m 36, and I was born and raised here on Pandora. Until those bastards at Hyperion tried to kill everyone in my village, I lived with mi abuela in the beautiful village of Ovejas.” So he was a native Pandoran, huh? Krieg could definitely see that in the way he held himself, always on the alert for danger, but relaxed, like it was something he anticipated with bated breath. It didn’t matter how many years someone spent on Pandora, they would never reach the same level of comfort and familiarity that only came with growing up with the hot stink of death breathing down one’s neck day in and day out, and Salvador seemed to bask in it. 

“Wait, they destroyed your home?” Gaige asked from her spot on the couch in between Maya and the pretty soldier.

Salvador let out a hearty chuckle. “Hah! Those cabrones had no idea what they were getting themselves into! They managed to kill a few poor bastards, but I made sure none of them lived to repeat their mistakes.”

“So how did you get into the vault hunting scene?” This time it was the soldier, asking from his inclined spot, the stained chunk of fabric still draped across his lap.

“Ah, you see, I was questioning the last of those corporate cronies about why they were sent to my beautiful Ovejas, and he told me all about Hyperion’s search for the vault. It was kinda hard to hear over his bones snapping, but there was no way I could refuse of promise like that!” The other guy smirked, like he was warming up to Salvador. Oh, great, just what he needed: someone to spur the other guy on and encourage him to continue in his sadistic, homicidal efforts. But other than that, Salvador _ seemed _like a legitimately good guy… hopefully he didn’t turn out to be too outwardly violent. 

“I thought if I could make enough money tracking down this vault, I could buy mi abuela a new house. Hell, with the rewards they “promised,” I could’ve rebuilt the entire town and had enough to live comfortably!” Well, that was a respectable enough goal. For someone of his… circumstances, he was surprisingly empathetic; Krieg found himself respecting the man far more than he had earlier. 

Now that Salvador had finished speaking, everyone looked to the person to the right of him, which, unfortunately, happened to be Krieg. Sir Hammerlock gave him a look-over, like he was seeing Krieg for the first time. “Well, now, unless my eyes deceive me, you appear to be quite the strapping psycho! What brings someone like you to the vault hunting business, my friend?”

Ah, shit. There was no way he would be able to answer a direct question like that! Sure, Krieg had plenty of reasons at the ready, from the need to survive, the company, boredom, a way to try and find out who the mysterious Grace was, to stay by the siren’s side… but those were _ his _reasons. For all he knew, the other guy could have a plethora of his own reasons. Not that Krieg would know what they were, considering he never wanted to share anything, much less his thoughts. Were they really so far separated from each other that that was possible? He wasn’t entirely sure. 

But maybe… what if the other guy’s reasons were the same as Krieg’s? 

The smirk he’d had faded into a hard-set frown, eyes narrowing as he stared at Sir Hammerlock.

_ Don’t try to intimidate him. Just tell him our name and why we’re here. _

“I’m here to shank and smile…” He growled, maintaining eye contact with Sir Hammerlock.

_ Is that really all you want? To kill? _

When it became clear that that was all he had to say, Gaige piped up from her spot. “His name’s Krieg! He doesn’t really talk much, but he’s _ super _ cool!”

_ She thinks we’re cool, huh? What a weird kid. _

“Oh, really?” Sir Hammerlock said, selecting a tool from his orderly row on the floor. “If you don’t mind my asking, then, Krieg, are you native like our good man Salvador here, or do you originate from some other planet?” 

The question was fair enough, but like almost everything else about himself, Krieg couldn’t remember. When he tried, he saw brief, vague flashes of a small, two-story house built from stone and wood, locked, abandoned, and falling apart amidst swirling dirt and thousands of buzzing mosquitoes. Where was that? Did he live there? It didn’t feel real, like he was looking at a scene from some old thriller movie. Krieg tried to grasp onto the images, to try and extrapolate off of them and step inside, to complete the scene, but they faded into dust as the other guy spoke.

“I climbed from the depths of HELL into the jaws of Purgatory, from the ashes of the broken and buried dead to LAUGH and SPIT in the bloody face of _ death! _” 

_ Um… what…? _

Krieg didn’t think he was native to Pandora. No, he was certain. The landscape and wilderness of the untamed world was entirely unfamiliar to him, even with his amnesia. That must mean he came to Pandora from somewhere else, but where?

Again, everyone looked at him with varying amounts of confusion. 

“I… see.” Sir Hammerlock finally got out. “In any case, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Krieg.” He looked ready to move on and speak to someone who didn’t spout word salad like a vegetable field. 

Next was the assassin, who stood in front of the doorway to Krieg’s right. He had to turn his head a bit to be able to see them, as they were just outside the range of his exposed eye. 

“I seek a challenge/ The ultimate challenge of/ Searching for the vault. I wish to test my/ Skills. You may call me Zer0/ It’s good to meet you.” A smiling emoji flashed over their helmet. Zer0? Was that some kind of pun? They seemed edgy and inscrutable on the train, and even now, Krieg still couldn’t figure anything out on them. 

“Ah, the lone, mysterious hunter! Well met, indeed! And what about you, my dear?” Sir Hammerlock turned to Maya.

The siren startled at Sir Hammerlock's words, surprised that it was already her turn. She had been in the midst of taking a sip from her cup, and when Sir Hammerlock asked her, she quickly choked down her drink and set the cup on the floor. 

“Oh! Um... “ She stuttered for a moment, clearly at a loss for what to say now that everyone was focused on her. “I’m… um… My name’s, uh, Maya. I’m a… a siren, and I, uh, I grew up on, um, Athenas.” Not one for conversation, apparently. The way she stumbled over her words, it sounded like she was either unused to being in a situation where she could converse freely, or she was a survivor of certain abuses. 

Krieg’s frown deepened at that thought. He really hoped it wasn’t the latter.

“The, uh, the monks of the Order of the Impending Storm raised me. They said that they, uh… that someone brought me to them when I was just an infant. They didn’t know who it was, and they didn’t bother to ask, I guess. So they trained me to be a warrior, trained me to protect, but they, ah… they never really let me have any freedom of my own. Not long after I turned 23, the monks showed me off to the people of Athenas, said I was their “savior.” It took me a few years to realize, but they were using me keep the people under their thumb; they didn’t want me to protect Athenas, they wanted to use me to keep their own control.” She became more confident as she spoke, sitting up straight as she explained her story. A focused crease grew between her eyes. 

“Eventually, they… the head monk ordered me to kill a man. He said he was a sinner, that he deserved to die, but he was just trying to feed his family. I’m 27 now, and, uh… I guess I’m a little embarrassed to say that it wasn’t until that moment that I really grasped how evil the Order was. I killed the head monk, and got on the first shuttle to Pandora.” 

27 years… that was a long time to spend under someone else’s control. She didn’t exactly _ look _27, but she didn’t look like a child, either. To Krieg, she seemed almost… timeless, like the never-ending waves of time would never erode at her, never break her down or diminish her power. 

_ Or her beauty… _

Hmm… Krieg was starting to wish he could remember his own age. Was she younger than him? It felt like it, but he didn’t know by how much. Depending on how severe the gap was, his feelings could very easily turn from a light-hearted crush into something… not so great. He didn’t like that thought. 

The other guy furrowed his brow and tilted his head to the side. 

Salvador chimed in, interrupting Krieg’s thoughts. “Why did you come to Pandora, of all places?” He asked. 

“Well, I’ve always wanted to find out more about my siren heritage, to know more about what I am and where I come from, but the monks never wanted me to know more than I had to. I heard that there was a scientist somewhere on Pandora that knew about sirens, so I guess I was hoping I could find them and… I don’t know, ask them some questions? Their research paper I found said there was a connection between sirens and the vaults, so I figured if I found a vault, I might learn something, y’know?” Maya didn’t sound entirely convinced of what she said, but Krieg supposed that since it was all she had to go on, it was better than nothing. It wasn’t like he had a goal to go off of, at least she knew what she wanted. 

Sir Hammerlock had ceased his fumbling with Claptrap’s wires to listen to Maya’s story, nodding sagely as she finished. “A scientist, you say? Perhaps you are seeking the expertise of Dr. Tannis?”

Maya’s eyes lit up at the mention of the name. “Yes, that’s exactly who. Do you know Dr. Tannis?”

He shook his head. “I am afraid I do not know her personally, but I hear she relocated to Sanctuary after Hyperion settled in. In any case, I am glad to hear that you were able to shake off the chains of your captors and choose your own path. I certainly look forward to working with you in the future.” Sir Hammerlock stated, him and Maya nodding at each other before he gestured to Gaige.

Gaige sat up and moved to the edge of the couch, leaning forward as she started talking, her hands flailing as she gestured wildly. “OK, so, you guys have all met me, but _ I _ am Gaige, and THIS-” she turned and pointed to her robot behind her. “Is Deathtrap! I’m 18 years old, and I’m from Eden-5. I was _ supposed _ to graduate from high school this year, but, ahhh, some _ really _ friggin’ stupid shit happened, and I, uh, I had to leave before the police could arrest me.” She trailed off with a nervous chuckle.

Damn, 18? She was older than Krieg had thought, but she was still just a _ kid. _ The unexpected paternal feeling that settled into his chest earlier was back with a vengeance, all but slapping him in the face as the true extent of her naivete dawned on him. 

The pretty soldier turned to look at her, a disbelieving expression crossing his face. “What in the hell could a pipsqueak like you possibly pull to warrant going _ off-planet _ to escape the law?” The others murmured their agreements.

Gaige looked sheepishly at the floor, but her excited grin never slipped. “So, uh, when I was 15, I had this idea for a kind of robot to help combat bullying in schools, y’know? ‘Cause schools all like to say they’re so proactive about bullying, but they never actually _ do _ anything besides come up with excuses for why you shouldn’t let anyone bother you, and how they “_don’t tolerate bullying, what do you mean you're being bullied?”"_

_ So she was bullied growing up, huh? Man, kids can be cruel. Why would anyone want to bully her? She seems like a good enough kid… _

“Anyways, it took me like two years to iron out most of the issues with it, but then, like, a couple months ago, my school announced they were gonna do a science fair, so I thought, hey! If I enter in with my anti-bullying ‘bot, I could TOTALLY win! And I put in hours and _ hours _ of work to perfect Project DT. I mean, I kinda got sidetracked one night ‘cause, like, I accidentally sliced open my arm, BUT I got the idea to turn the digistruct spawning rod I built for it into an ARM! It took a couple hours, and I really freaked my dad out when I cut it the rest of the way off, but it was TOTALLY _ WORTH IT!” _

_ “ _ Wait, wait wait, _ hold on just a second.” _ Salvador interrupted her. “You _ cut _your own arm off so you could replace it with a robot one?”

“Yup!” 

Salvador, Maya, Sir Hammerlock, and the pretty soldier began talking at once, all of them apparently having something to say about her self-mutilation. Zer0 didn’t join in, but they flashed several exclamation points over their helmet and crossed their arms.

Krieg was… not sure how true that story was, but she showed no signs of lying, and thus far she had proved herself trustworthy, so maybe there was some truth to it. If it was true, then perhaps she wasn’t as innocent as he’d initially believed; she certainly was impulsive, though, to pull something as reckless as cutting her own arm off. Not to mention _ smart, _if she built both the arm and the robot on her own.

Gaige quieted the others down so she could resume her story. “Ok, ok, ok, so, after I attached my new arm, I found out that Marcie-goddamn-Holloway - that bitch! - _ stole _ my blueprints for Project DT and SOLD them to the military, who appropriated them to be used as police force bots! Can you IMAGINE?! Those fascists bastards STOLE my robot and used it upgrade their lame arsenal. Ugh.” She dropped her face into her hands for a few seconds. 

When she was ready to continue, she looked back up, her elbows resting on her knees as she slouched forward. “Ok. So, basically, I worked double time to improve Project DT, which I renamed Deathtrap. And I guess I kind of… um… miscalibrated some circuits, or something, ‘cause, like, when it came time to present him during the fair, Marcie pushed me, and he, uh… completely… obliterated her… with his digistruct claws.” Gaige looked upset, but Krieg wasn't sure if she was more upset at her mistakes or the fact that her own creation literally _ killed _ one of her fellow students. “I mean, I feel _ kinda _bad for what Deathtrap did to her, sort of, but, like, uh, she kinda had it comin’, y’know?” Despite the cocksure look she wore, Gaige’s voice was trembling. 

Hmm. That wasn’t exactly what Krieg would call _ deserving _, by any means. From the sounds of it, this Marcie wasn’t really the best person to know, but considering she was also still young like Gaige, Krieg didn’t necessarily agree that she deserved to die. Maybe Gaige, herself, didn’t think she deserved death, but that was the hand that had been played, whether she liked it or not, and she had to live with it. He could tell there was some regret in Gaige’s face, though, that she understood well enough the situation she’d placed herself in, and now she way paying the price. 

“Anyways, once _ that _ was all over, I found out that I was gonna be expelled and arrested, and was ordered to wait for the police to show up. I… uh, I called my dad up and told him what happened, and he, um… he made a distraction so that I could get away, so I skipped town and grabbed a ticket to Pandora. I’d heard about it in the news and our history books, so I figured, hey, maybe I could take Hyperion up on their offer for recruiting vault hunters while I wait for things to blow over. As you can see, that didn’t, ehh, that didn’t exactly work out that well. Um, oops.”

Sir Hammerlock looked up from his work on Claptrap. Everyone was silent for several tense moments before anyone spoke up. 

“You have gone through much/ That one your age should never/ Have had to deal with. Youth should be spent with/ Friends and family, not on/ The run from the law.” Zer0 spoke up from where they stood, displaying three dots. Maya wrapped her arm around Gaige’s shoulders and pulled her into an awkward side hug, which she accepted. The pretty soldier leaned forward and wrapped his own arm around her, pulling her in to knuckle the top of her head and mess up her already wild hair. 

“Blagh, what the hell?!” Gaige demanded, desperately trying to extricate herself from the headlock. 

“We’re your family, now, punk! You got yourself into this position, and we ain’t lettin’ you get out of it so easily!” He said, a joking edge to voice, but he didn’t let it spoil the sentimentality of his words. 

“He’s right, hermana, you’re stuck with us!” Salvador agreed, nodding from where he sat. 

Gaige struggled for several more seconds before the pretty soldier let her go. “Oh, GEE, thanks, I’m _ so _ glad I was able to get three _ more _dads!” She said sarcastically, huffing as she tried to fix her hair. 

The soldier looked mildly affronted. “Hey, I’m not _ that _ old! I’m only 26, y’know! I’m more like your cool older brother. _ Sal, _on the other hand, could be your new dad, maybe even Krieg!”

Him? No way! Krieg didn’t think he was that old, but who knows… his aching back sure seemed to agree, but he knew that that wasn’t necessarily caused by age so much as poor sleeping habits and nutrition. Hopefully. 

Salvador could only cackle at the soldier’s words, slapping his knee and tilting his head back as Maya and Sir Hammerlock joined in. The other guy didn’t have much to offer to the conversation, remaining quiet as he watched the others laugh. Krieg couldn’t see Zer0, but he was at least partially sure that they had another image floating above them. 

Even with the recent excitements, what with the train being derailed, them all nearly dying, and now the revelation of everyone’s tragic pasts, Krieg was beginning to feel a bit… happy. Here he was, a nearly feral monster, barely contained, sitting among normal,_ regular _people and enjoying their company, even if he couldn’t quite participate much. Maybe things really were looking up. 

Although, he wondered why the big guy was staying so quiet; he hardly had any reason to, not that having a reason had stopped him before… 

Once the others calmed down, Sir Hammerlock asked the soldier about his own past.

Relaxing against the back of the couch, the soldier sighed. “Alright, I guess it is kinda my turn, ain’t it. Right, to start, my name’s Axton. As I said earlier, I’m 26 years old, though I’m coming up on 27 pretty soon. I’m originally from Hieronymous, but I joined up with the Dahl military when I was about 16. Spent a lot of time deployed to other planets, was elevated to the rank of sergeant, even met my wife. Well, ex-wife, really.”

“Ooooh, so you’re a married man, huh? What’s her name?” Gaige poked at his side with her robotic arm, a mischievous smile on her face. 

“I said not anymore! We, ah, decided it was best to part ways a few months ago. I kind of… let some things go to my head, and as my superior officer, she was required to… bring me in. I guess she’d had enough of my bullshit, ‘cause she told me to get as far away from her, and Dahl, as I could. Gave me back her ring, too.” He weakly lifted a chain out from under his shirt, displaying two wedding bands hanging from the end, before tucking it back under. A bit of regret flickered across his face. “Her name’s Sarah. She was the best damn lady I’ve ever met. Truth be told, I was kinda sad to leave.” 

“So I left. Took off to the planets outside of Dahl’s jurisdiction and worked as a mercenary slash bounty hunter for a while, taking odd jobs and bringing in fugitives for the local towns. It was pretty easy work, usually, and paid pretty well, but it wasn’t what I was lookin’ for.” 

“And what, exactly, would that be?” Maya asked.

Axton smirked at the question. “Why, glory, of course! I heard an ad on the radio from Hyperion about the vault, so I figured hey, why the hell not!” 

“Really? You became a vault hunter on a whim for glory?” Came Maya again, brows furrowed as she turned to look at him. 

“Well… yeah. I mean, it’s not as commendable as wanting to help my family, or trying to learn about ancient superpowers, but that’s my reason, and I’m sticking with it.”

Maya looked at him for several more seconds before letting up, turning back to Sir Hammerlock with shrug. “Fair enough.”

Axton… there was something strange about him that Krieg couldn’t shake. What was it? There was that weird feeling of deja vu again. He didn’t look familiar, but something about him was… off. Maybe it was a side effect of being just cute enough to turn a head or two, maybe it was nothing. 

The former soldier noticed Krieg’s eye on him and moved his head to look at him, his own eyes narrowing as he focused, his gaze slowly drifting from Krieg’s masked face down to his booted feet, lingering uncomfortably on some areas that Krieg didn’t exactly appreciate. The other guy glared as Axton caught his eye again and turned away, a bit of color blooming around what little of the soldier boy’s neck he could see, rising up to his cheeks.

_ C’mon man, really? Not cool. _

The other guy grunted in disdain and turned his back to the others, stalking back outside the door he’d entered through. He could hear the others still talking as he left, chattering on as if they didn’t even notice Krieg leaving. 

“Pasty puppet needs to keep his little eyes to himself before I EAT them.” The other guy muttered as he stepped out into the cold. 

_ Y’know, maybe if we dressed a little more modestly, this wouldn’t happen. Just sayin’... _

_ “ _No!”

Whatever. Not like it was important, anyways. 

Krieg watched with only mild interest as the other guy walked around the building, clamoring up the chunks of ice and frozen garbage to the roof. As he looked around, he could see smoke rising through the hole the roof, the very same hole that Knuckledragger had descended through to pluck out Claptrap’s eye. He picked his way over the trash to the other side, careful not to lose his footing on the more icy areas. 

Standing on the edge overlooking the rear side of the building, Krieg saw for quite a ways over the glacier; he could make out the charred remains of the train a ways away. 

It occurred to him, suddenly, that he had never checked to see how his shoulder was doing after his rather painful landing earlier. They had all been so busy that he guessed it just… slipped his mind. 

_ You think our shoulder has healed yet? _

The other guy reached a hand up to feel around the skin. It was a little tender, and bits of dried blood and dirt flaked off onto his fingers, but the wound had almost completely healed. A good thing, too, since the junkyard Claptrap called home wasn’t exactly the most sanitary place to be. 

Scratch that, _ Pandora _wasn’t exactly the most sanitary place to be. If it weren’t for his quick healing, aggressive immune system, and automatic cauterization skills, he’d probably have died from infection weeks ago. 

Slowly, the big guy pulled the mask over until it covered the back of his head. The cool air felt heavenly against his face after spending so much time under the dry heat of the sun. 

A stream of laughter rose up behind him, the vault hunters inside still well at work with their socialization. Krieg wanted to go back down and join them, to shoot the shit with them and joke and banter, but he knew that was an empty dream. He wondered what they were talking about down there, wondered what they thought of him. None of them displayed any kind of disdain towards him, and they were friendly enough, but what did they think of his… eccentricities? As far as they knew, he was just another psycho, just another half-naked madman spouting verse about carnage and meat. 

Hell, there was no way they’d even know about the existence of Krieg inside his own head. All they knew was the other guy. The impostor. It made him sad to think that they were all entirely unaware of the man behind the man behind the mask, unaware that underneath the glowering and the screaming lay the true Krieg, the _ real _ Krieg. Would he ever be able to show them the real Krieg? Show them that he was so much more than his violent alter ego?

The other guy stared out at the wreckage as he relieved himself, eyes drifting up to the vast aurora snaking its way across the sky. His right eye didn’t ache as bad as it usually did. Maybe it was because of the low temperature? No, he’d been in plenty of cold places before, and it had still hurt, even then. Then perhaps it was the light that made it hurt? Krieg thought back to all the previous times he’d had it uncovered, and that seemed to make the most sense. But why would light make his eye hurt? What did they do to it?

Off in the distance, he could see the cracked surface of the moon Elpis, and in front of it, the Hyperion space station. What was it called? He knew it had a name, something starting with an H, but he either never learned it or didn’t remember. It was kind of weird to think that the corporation responsible for his current state was always within his view, that the very man he could pin all his suffering to was somewhere in that giant, ugly H in the sky. 

Krieg’s thoughts drifted back to the vault hunters as another peel of laughter rose from inside, this time it sounded like it was from Maya.

What did _ she _think of him? He’d only known her for a handful of hours, and already Krieg could feel the telltale signs of infatuation creeping up behind him. It wasn’t something that he was unprepared for, but he knew he’d have an easier time managing his feelings it if he could just recall the other times he’d dealt with it. 

The other guy leaned down and sat on the edge, his feet dangling off into the empty air. 

Maya… she _ was _beautiful. Stunning, radiant, shining like the blue and purple lights that danced over the silvery stars in the deep, rolling sea of the universe, stretching on and on before him into forever. 

But beautiful or not, she was still her own person, and he had no right to step in and demand her time and attention just because she helped rekindle the tiny flame of hope that flickered in his chest. There was no way someone like _ her_, powerful and strong, chosen by the universe to be one of its champions, would ever stoop so low as to fraternize with someone… some _ thing _… like Krieg. Hell, his very name spoke of his nature, spoke of his duality and inability to settle. Always at war… 

A few butterflies made their way down his throat to settle in his stomach, fluttering helplessly as he listened to another wave of her loud, exacting voice drift up behind him. 

Oh, it was going to be a long night…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There, that wasn't so bad! I swear, one day I'll get on a regular update schedule


	8. Couch Surfing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maya and the vault hunters have a nice chat with Hammerlock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I apologize for taking so long with this chapter.

For a glacier on the edge of the ocean, there was a surprising amount of bandits. It wasn’t exactly like the windy, icy snowscape was lush with resources, but Maya supposed that the shear amount of bullymongs and rakks could help make up for lack of… literally everything else. 

While he replaced Claptrap’s eye, that Hammerlock guy explained that all the bandits on the glacier were either former laborers, meaning they were convicts forced into servitude by the Dahl corporation, or former seamen, sailors and navy men-turned-pirates who sailed under the captain Flynt. When winter finally rolled around, he said, the planet experienced several flash-freezes that only served to intensify the already horrifying polar weather on what was the northernmost tip of the southern shelf. 

From what Claptrap recalled, not long before the inhabitants of Liar’s Berg fled, the temperatures began to drop severely, causing the rapid advancement of the vast ice fields and icebergs that normally covered the shelf. Captain Flynt’s ship, the Ice Sickle, had been docked at the time of the flash freezes, and the ship was trapped in the ice, stranding Flynt and his Rippers. 

Also according to Claptrap, there was another settlement of bandits not far from Liar’s Berg, who had integrated into Flynt’s gang when he proved himself to be the stronger of the two, killing their leader with a single punch to the face. 

Or so Claptrap claimed. 

Once Hammerlock restored his sight and turned Claptrap back on, the little robot had been more than eager to talk their ears off with stories and anecdotes about his time in the southern shelf, occasionally joined by brief history lessons from Hammerlock. The anecdotal reprieve had steady evolved into the group shooting the shit and bantering, joking and getting to know each other as they waited for the long night to come to an end; and they only had about 12 hours to go… 

It wasn’t until they heard an unearthly rumbling from Salvador’s direction that any of them even considered that they might need to find some food. Maya’s own stomach began to growl at the thought, as the last time she’d eaten had been several hours before boarding the train, munching her way through the last of her protein bars on a ram-shackled bus.

After several minutes of laughing and teasing Salvador for his noisy intestines, Hammerlock offered to let them come back to the building he was using as a base and raid the food supplies in its basement. 

“Are you sure?” Maya asked. “I’d hate to take all of your food when you’re on your own out here.”

Hammerlock, seated on an overturned bucket near the furnace, chuckled in response. “Ohhoho, it is no trouble, I assure you; there are enough stores in that building to last months, and besides, my time on this glacier is rapidly coming to an end, so long as your plan to take down Captain Flynt and reclaim the ship hold true.” 

Gaige jumped up from her spot between Maya and Axton, raising a fist into the air. “Oh, HELL YES! Hammerlock, you are OFFICIALLY the coolest person here!” 

“I thought you said Krieg was the coolest?” Salvador called over from the crate he sat on. 

Gaige put her arm down and hmm’d for a moment. “Uhhh… Ok. Hammerlock, you are the SECOND coolest dude here!” She sat back on the couch. 

Hammerlock laughed again, joined by Maya and the others, amused by her loud, spunky energy.

Salvador was the first to stop, a worried look growing as the lines in his forehead deepened. “Aha, yeah, speaking of which, where did that puta go? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

The others slowly stopped their laughing as they noticed the large man’s absence. That was a good question: where _ did _he go? He had been there when they made their introductions, but Maya couldn’t seem to remember when, exactly, he’d disappeared, as she hadn’t really been paying him much attention; it was almost strange how someone so large to go unnoticed so easily.

“He’d said he was pretty hungry when we got here…” Salvador continued his musing.

Axton sat forward on the couch, his elbows on his knees as he clasped his hands together. “Wait… seriously? We’ve been here for hours, and you just casually forgot to mention that the dude who looks like he’s on the verge of starvation was _ still fuckin’ starving?” _He hadn’t been concerned for the man’s health earlier, so why was he concerned now?

“Well… I… I guess?” Salvador rubbed the back of his head and looked at the floor. “I mean… it’s not like I’m his friggin’ caretaker or anything, I figured if it was really an issue, he could take care of it himself. He might be a psycho, but he’s still a grown-ass man. He can take care of himself.”

“Are you sure about that?” Maya asked. Krieg didn’t really seem like he was entirely present, like his mind was on autopilot, or something. And the way he rambled on in weirdly poetic verse or went silent, Maya couldn’t decide if that spoke of someone with incredible intelligence or… the empty-headed screaming of another psycho with his brain scrambled like an egg. For the past few hours she’d known him, Maya had just assumed it was the latter.

“Uh… no… but… I’ve known plenty of psychos in my time! If he was one of the simple ones, he wouldn’t be here!” Salvador defended himself.

That was… true. 

“It doesn’t matter if he’s got a brain made of ground beef, he’s part of the team!” Gaige interjected. “I say we look around and find him, and when we do, we all can head over to Hammerlock’s place and stuff our faces!”

“What a splendid plan/ He should not have gone very/ Far from the building.” Zer0 said, causing Maya to turn her head to where they stood by the doorway. They had been quiet thus far, content to stay off by the sidelines and offer only minimum input. 

“Exactly!” Gaige shouted, sticking her robotic arm in front of Maya’s face and causing her to lean back as the teen gestured dramatically towards the assassin.

“I shall go look for/ Our large companion. It will/ Not take too long. Bye.” Zer0 disappeared before anyone could argue. 

Hammerlock stared at the spot where Zer0 had stood for several seconds before turning back towards the vault hunters. “...In any case, it’s mostly frozen goods, but I’m sure that once I turn the power back on and get the kitchen running again, we could whip up quite the meal!” 

Claptrap, who had compressed himself by pulling his arms, antenna, and wheel into his shell, suddenly unboxed himself and began to roll around the room. “Oh YEAH! Once we get to Hammerlock’s place, then we can REALLY get the party started!” He shouted, spinning and moving his arms in a high exaggerated version of some kind of dance. 

Hammerlock dropped his face into a palm and sighed. “Oh, dear… of course Claptrap will insist upon joining us.”

“HELL yeah!” Gaige said, leaning forward to solicit a high five from him Claptrap. “Oh, man, we are gonna have a _ fantastic _time!” 

Axton rolled his eyes, while Salvador laughed and shook his head slightly, then crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall behind him. Claptrap ceased his dancing and rolled over stand in between Maya’s end of the couch and Salvador. 

“So, uh, Hammerlock…” Maya started, waiting for the mustachioed man to look back up before continuing, “If the power in Liar’s Berg is off, then, ah, how have you managed to survive in that building for so long? Is there a, um, a generator in there or something?”

“Quite so. The building used to be the residence of the town’s mayor.” He said, straightening in his seat and drawing a leg up onto his knee. “For a time, the resistance leader Helena Pierce herself resided there, issuing orders to the local Crimson Raiders and keeping Flynt’s Rippers away from the townsfolk. Like many of the other homes here, it has quite an impressive basement, used primarily for the storage of supplies. There are several backup generators, as well as a decent amount of fuel; in the event of an emergency, such as loss of power, or drastic changes in the weather, the townsfolk would have taken to the cellar to seek refuge. Unfortunately, the cellar does not provide sufficient protection from more serious threats, such as bandit raids.” 

“What were those bastards doing in that town, anyways?” Salvador asked.

“Flynt’s men were preparing to break through the meager defenses, and would have no doubt have been ready within another 24 hours had you kind adventurers not arrived. Thank you again for your timely rescue, by the way, you have my sincerest gratitude.” Hammerlock replied, lowering his head in a nod towards Salvador, who smirked and nodded back. “They would have been ready sooner, had I not shut down the town’s main supply of power.”

Maya raised an eyebrow. “Why did you shut it down, anyways?” How would turning the power off affect how soon bandits raid your hiding spots?

Hammerlock ran his robotic fingers along his chin. “The bandits occupying Liar’s Berg were having quite a bit of trouble from the local bullymongs, you see, and while many of them were wounded by the brutes, they appeared to want to exterminate them before they took me captive.” He stared absently at the floor and scrunched his eyebrows, as if he was lost in thought. “I am truly uncertain why, though. Captain Flynt went on and on about what his Ripper’s were going to do once they seized the area and, by extension, myself, but he never actually elaborated as to _ why. _ E ither way, the bandits were holding up in the numerous abandoned homes, and the lack of power forced them to resort to more _basic _methods of staying warm.”

“Maybe he just wanted to take your stuff.” Axton suggested, picking at something between his teeth with a pinky and watching the smoke rise from the furnace and out through the ceiling. Following his gaze, Maya saw that the aurora from earlier had disappeared, allowing the countless stars behind to shine through. The smoke wafting upwards wasn’t particularly thick or dark, and was quickly blown away once it was high enough for the wind outside to catch it. 

“Perhaps…” Hammerlock’s eyes remained fixed upon a single spot on the floor as he trailed off. 

Claptrap had perked up at the mention of Flynt’s motives. “Ah, that Captain Flynt! You know, me and him go back a long way!” The robot said, earning a side-eye from Salvador and undivided attention from Gaige.

“Wait, seriously?” Gaige asked. “I thought you said that handsome jackass left you here to die.”

“Yeah!” Salvador agreed with Gaige in her confusion.

“He _ did! _ But after he dumped me here, that jerk Flynt kept me as his torture plaything for a few months. We played games like ‘dodge the blowtorch’, and ‘don’t get dunked into the pool of acid.’ I was really good at the first one.”

Maya was taken aback by that statement. “Oh… I… see. I’m sorry, Claptrap, that must have really, uh… sucked a lot.” 

_ Real smooth, _ Maya thought, _ that’ll really tell him how much you sympathize with his shitty luck. _

“Oh, it did! But it’ll take more than THAT to bring low the might Claptrap!” He said, raising an arm and mimicking Hammerlock’s salute from when the gentleman arrived. 

Maya opened her mouth to ask the robot about Flynt when a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Turning to her left, she watched as Zer0 stopped at the edge of the wall of snow blocks Salvador leaned against, flashing a smiley face as Maya focused on them. 

“Did you find him?” She asked. The others all looked up towards Zer0 when she spoke, expectant. 

“He didn’t leave us behind, did he?” Gaige asked, a hint of concern in her voice. Man, she really seemed to like Krieg. _ I wonder why… _Maya thought.

“I found him out in/ The snow, burning rakks alive/ And then eating them.” Zer0 told the group, as if they were saying they found a wandering toddler and not what was possibly the weirdest thing Maya had heard since waking up. 

What did they _ mean _ he was setting them on fire and then eating them? Did Krieg have a fire elemental gun that he just hadn’t used thus far? How? He didn’t have an echo, and by extension, a storage deck, where could he _ possibly _keep a gun that it would go unnoticed? Wait, no, there had to be some other logical explanation. Perhaps he managed to set something on fire and use it as a weapon to light up the rakks? 

No, wait, he must have caught the rakks out of the air and then exposed them to a fire he started beforehand. Maybe he found a furnace somewhere in Liar’s Berg? But Zer0 wouldn’t have had enough time to get to the town, find Krieg, and then come back. Maya vaguely heard the others talking with Zer0 as she puzzled, the mystery of the situation causing her to overthink as she stared at the room behind Zer0.

Eventually, Maya looked back up a them. “Wait… what do you mean he was burning them alive? Like, was he catching them and then throwing them into a fire, or was he just, ah, hitting them with, like, a burning stick, or something?” She asked the assassin.

Several exclamation points replaced the smiley face.. “He removed his mask/ And then breathed fire on them/ It was quite a show. I did not know he/ Possessed such skills, nor do I/ Know how he did it.” A large :D took the place of the flashing exclamation points.

Salvador, who had started paying significant attention at the mention of Krieg breathing fire, adjusted so that he sat on the edge of the crate. “It’s friggin’ _ awesome! _ He set that bullymong pendejo on fire earlier, too, and then the bandits in the town!” He looked positively ecstatic, like a little kid opening presents on their birthday. 

“Oh, yeah, that was _ so cool! _” Gaige added. “He totally ROASTED those bandit bastards!”

“My friend, did you happen to see the man’s face when you found him setting wildlife aflame?” Hammerlock asked, having finally roused himself from his focused inspection of the floor. 

“No.” They flashed a :(. “He was turned away./ When I made my presence known,/ He replaced the mask/”

“A pity…” Hammerlock trailed off. 

Maya wasn’t sure how they knew he was there, as he hadn’t really made much noise, but she and the others all looked up to watch Krieg stride into the room from behind Zer0, his bloodied axe swinging loosely in his right hand.

Claptrap seemed to have some reservations about the man, as when the little robot saw him approach, his boxy metal body began to tremble. When Krieg got within a meter of him, Claptrap apparently couldn’t take it anymore and zoomed around out of the room, screaming dramatically as he let his arms flail behind him. Everyone’s eyes followed Claptrap out of the room, but no one said anything.

Krieg came to a stop, standing between Salvador and Maya. “HEEEEERE’S JOHNNY!” He shouted, his voice pitched down to that menacingly low guttural tone. 

Gaige cracked up instantly at his words, clutching her gut as she tipped back. “Oh, HELL yeah, dude!” What? Why was she laughing? Was that some kind of reference?

“Ah, there you are, Krieg! I am unsure if Zer0 here told you or not, but we were planning on returning to Liar’s Berg in order to restore the power and scrape together a meal. Would you care to join us?” Hammerlock asked the hulking man, setting his leg back to the floor and resting his robotic forearm in his thigh, his left hand placed on his knee. 

Krieg grunted and nodded slowly, then strode towards the couch Maya was on, lifting his arm to place the axe through the leather that went across his back. He stopped a foot or so in front of Maya, his single eye glaring down at her through the mask.

“Um… what’s up, big guy? You, uh, need something?” She asked, not entirely sure if she ought to be concerned. 

Maintaining an uncomfortable level of steady eye contact, Krieg slipped two fingers into the front pocket of his pants and produced a small orange bottle with a white lid. Squatting down, he reached his other arm forward and grabbed one of Maya’s hands, then pressed the bottle to her palm and gingerly closed her fingers around the dirty plastic. She was still processing the strangeness of his actions when he released her hand and stood up, her brows furrowing as she looked from Krieg to the bottle, then back to Krieg.

“Fresh poison to kill the dizzying mind worms of shock.” He growled.

Why was he giving her pills? Maya inspected the label on the bottle, confused; the label was Hyperion, but she didn’t recognize the name of the drug listed. “Uhhh… thanks, but, uh… what are these for?”

“Mnnnngh…! Fresh poison to kill the dizzying mind worms of shock!” He repeated, this time with a bit more fervor in his voice. What did that even mean? Did he really expect her to understand his word salad as if it actually had meaning? Why couldn’t he just talk like a normal person and tell her what the pills were for?

“I don’t know what that means, Krieg.” She told him. 

He let out a frustrated huff.

What was that for? It wasn’t her fault he didn’t make any sense.

Gaige leaned over Maya’s shoulder to look at the bottle, then snatched it out of her hand. “Hey!” Maya complained, sharply turning towards the teen, who now had a browser open on her echo, furiously typing into the holo-screen as she paused at regular intervals to read the bottle’s label. 

After spending a minute or so reading through something Maya couldn’t see, Gaige suddenly exclaimed loudly, her eyes widening as she stared at the screen, then the bottle of pills, then up to the man’s masked face. “Krieg, you magnificent son of a bitch, how the hell did you manage to _ find _these?!” The teen asked, the shock in her voice mixing with a bit of awe. 

“What? What are they?” Maya was starting to feel a little left out. What was she so excited about? 

Gaige put her echo away and turned to Maya, her eyes filled with unrelenting excitement and enthusiasm. “Ok, so you know how a bunch of the mega-corporations have, like, their own sets of scientists and shit they research, and always try to take a dip into medicine or whatever?”

Maya nodded slowly, unsure of where she was going with it.

“And Hyperion has, like, a whole BRANCH that they dedicate to sciency shit, and part of it is heavily invested into, like, medicine and healing and stuff. They’ve got a whole pharmacy brand that they monopolize off of on the less shithole-y planets they control.”

“Ok, but what does that have to do with the pills Krieg found?” 

“I’m _ getting _ there, ok? So, uh, they spend all this money on, like, experimental drugs and shit, and one of the newer ones that they’ve been working on-” She held up the bottle and shook it. “-Is _ supposed _ to be used to treat head injuries. I don’t know how in the fuck it’s supposed to work, considering that head injuries are, like, not something you can just _ fix _, otherwise that hypo would’ve taken care of your concussion immediately.”

Maya blinked, her eyes widening in surprise. Wait, so _ that’s _ what it was about? With this new information, she replayed Krieg’s nonsensical sentence in her head; a “fresh poison”… that must refer to the drug’s recent production. “To kill the dizzying mind worms of shock”... then that must be talking about its ability to treat head injuries, specifically the concussion she suffered from the crash. Krieg had been there to witness first-hand her disorientation, but how did he know it was still affecting her? Well, he _ had _been in the room when she told the others about the horrifying pain and even further disorientation when she used her abilities, maybe he’d actually been listening…? 

“But the drug isn’t even out on the market yet.” She continued. “I read some medical report or some shit that one of my teachers brought in about “the dangers of research in medicine” or whatever the fresh hell he was on about, and it said that it still had to get, like, _ approved, _ you know, and had to go through a bunch of legal shit in order for Hyperion to be able to distribute it. But _ the point is, _ you can’t get this under normal circumstances.” Gaige’s breathing had elevated, like her little tangent had set her off on a race. 

The teen handed the bottle back to Maya, who stared at it for several more seconds before popping the lid off. Peering in, she could see it was about half full of small, round, plain white pills. 

Gaige looked back up at Krieg. “Seriously, where did you _ find _these, dude? You’re either the craftiest dude on Pandora, or some kind of double agent.”

Maya looked up from the pills to see Krieg scratching the back of his neck, looking down sheepishly. “...The drop barge treasure is ripe for the picking.” He growled. Gaige squinted at him, but she was satisfied with his answer.

“Haha! If they wanted to keep their experimental drugs to themselves, then they shoulda cleaned up their mess!” She raised her arm up to high-five Krieg, who was more than happy to comply. “Hell, yeah, dude!”

Hmm… if they weren’t on the market yet, then were they even safe to ingest? “Are you guys, uhhh, are you sure these are ok to take? Like, they’re not gonna make me bust out in hives or die from a fever or anything, right?”

“Nah, man, once drugs and medicines reach this stage, they’re usually pretty safe to take. I think. ‘Cause all the testing has already been done on them.”

Reaching her left arm over the arm of the couch, Maya grabbed the cup of water she’d set down earlier. Once her and Axton had woken up earlier and started talking with Claptrap, the robot collected some snow in a pair of cups and melted them by the fire for the two to drink. Maya’s was room temperature at that point, but that wasn’t really a problem; she checked the dosage suggestion and popped two of the pills into her mouth, washing them down with the musty-tasting water. 

Krieg seemed satisfied, despite the disgruntled look in his near-constant glaring eye, and stalked over to Salvador and plopped himself onto the filthy floor about a meter to the short man’s right. Maya tried to ignore his dark eye fixed firmly on her as Hammerlock spoke.

“Well, now that we are all together once again, perhaps we should begin our venture back to Liar’s Berg. Or, Maya, would you prefer we wait for Krieg’s strange medicine to do its work?”

Now that was a fairly sensible question. Maya felt confident she could make the short journey to the town, but if they were right about all the ice, it would be better to wait. “I think I would rather wait. Besides, we ought to check on Axton’s wounds as well and see if he can handle another hypo.”

“Take your time, hermana, we are in no rush.” Salvador said, much to Maya’s surprise and appreciation. Out of everyone present, Salvador seemed the least likely to have a single caring bone in his body, what with his gruff, muscular appearance and Pandoran upbringing, yet so far he acted almost like some kind of mother hen. It was unexpected, but she knew better than to question it. 

Gaige had leaned over to ask Axton a question, but it looked like he’d fallen asleep in the time since Zer0 had left to find Krieg.

Speaking of which, where had they gone? They had been standing off to the side just a few minutes prior, but now they were nowhere to be seen. Weird… 

Leaning against the back of the couch, Axton’s arms were crossed over his chest and his feet were pulled up to rest on the edge, the questionably sourced fabric draped across his lap. His head was tilted back, leaving his mouth slightly agape, which Gaige took advantage of by sticking her finger in and poking at his tongue.

He didn’t react in any way, so the teen tried to rouse him again by smacking his forehead. 

That did the trick, Axton’s eyes flying open as he lifted his head. “What? I’m listening.” He said, voice slurred.

“We’re heading over to Hammerlock’s soon, amigo.” Salvador called over.

“Yeah, we gotta make sure you ain’t gonna keel over on the way.” Gaige added.

The soldier blinked several times and sat up, then stretched his arms above his head and yawned. “Ahhh, yeah, sure, lemme just…” He pulled the “blanket” off his lap and placed his feet on the ground. Gaige stood and walked around to the corner where Deathtrap hovered while Axton fumbled with the zippers and buttons on his uniform, peeling the layers open until his bloody and bruised torso was exposed, wincing as the cold air hit the rest of the partially healed wound and tender skin. 

Whoa… it hadn't been that long since she’d taken the pills, but Maya could already feel… _ something… _ going on; the constant, slight pain from where she’d hit her head began to fade, and the other unpleasant feelings started to morph into a heady buzz. Curious to see how it was affecting her phasing abilities, Maya scooted over to Axton’s side and inspected his wound. “Do you, uh… do you mind if I see something real quick?” She asked him, watching his face for the inevitable confusion. 

Lo and behold, he looked at her like she’d asked to punch him in the face. “You got some kinda freaky siren power that’ll help, or somethin’?” 

“Ummm, yeah, you could say that.”

Gaige returned to stand before the two, Deathtrap’s medical kit in her hands. “Ohhh, are you gonna try your cool healing powers on him? Is that medicine kickin’ in already?” She teen asked.

The buzzing had grown and morphed yet again into a sort of high that left her brain feeling like a million dollars. “Yes, I want to know if the drug will also affect my phasing, or if it’ll just help my head.” Maya turned to face Axton. “Is that alright with you? I don’t want to risk overdosing you on hypo if we can avoid it.” 

Behind Gaige, Hammerlock tilted his head to the side, content to watch the scene play out with rapt interest.

Axton narrowed his eyes. “Hmmm, I dunno, how’s it work? Just how much am I gonna feel this?” 

“Um… Hey, Krieg?” Maya turned her head to face him. She didn’t actually know how it felt to be on the receiving end of her abilities, as most of the few patients she’d had besides the man on the floor were animals. The monks never bothered focusing on healing, and the one or two that let her practice on them refused to tell her anything about the experience. “What did it feel like when I fixed your gunshot?”

Krieg’s eye was still fixed on her. 

“..._ Itchy.” _He said after several seconds. Huh. Maya hadn’t expected a response, but she’d take what she could get. Salvador looked mildly confused, but he kept any questions he had to himself for the time being. 

“Did it hurt?” Maya asked.

Again, he stared for a few seconds, except this time he tilted his head and brought a hand forward to feel the spot where she’d shot him. “...No.” 

Maya looked back to Axton, who was satisfied with Krieg’s answers. “Alright, go ahead.” He told her with a reluctant sigh.

“Alright, if you could just, um, lean back a little… ok, and, uh, move your shirt to the side a bit for me… great, thanks. Ok, I don’t know how long this will take, so just, uh… just… bear with me for a minute.” Maya gently set her hand against the bruised skin on his sternum and focused. As the power flowed through the glowing tattoos into Axton’s body, Maya could feel - or maybe sense was the right word - the extent of the damage, and it wasn’t pretty; most of it had been fixed and patched already from the janked-up stem cells of the hypo medicine, but he was still really tore up.

Behind her, Salvador exclaimed loudly as the glow strengthened. 

It was difficult, as there was still a minor amount of discomfort from using her power, so she took it as easy as she could, slowly bringing her hand down towards where the main damage was. Axton gasped as the dark mottled bruising faded away, the muscles in his gut repeatedly tensing up and relaxing. 

“I need you to relax and hold still.” Maya said, straining from the effort of speaking while also trying to keep her focus. Axton forced himself to relax.

She had to keep her palm pressed firmly in place where the pipe had gone through for what felt like forever, although in reality it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, but by the time Maya cut off the flow of energy and removed her hand, beads of sweat were rolling down her back and dotting her forehead. The second she moved away from him, Axton brought his hands to his stomach and began to scratch furiously, curling into a ball and whining all the while. 

Maya turned and hunched over, her elbows on her knees as she slouched forward and focused on breathing. By the _ stars _, there had been so much more damage than she’d anticipated. Gaige, Salvador, and Hammerlock were speaking to Axton, asking him how he felt and wanting to see the result of Maya’s healing. When Salvador stood and walked over to the couch to get a look, Maya pushed herself to her feet to give him some room.

Oh, maybe that wasn’t the best idea. She wobbled a little from exhaustion, but otherwise, she seemed to have regained most of her balance.

Staring at the floor, Maya slowly stepped towards the furnace. Man, she was so _ cold. _Sure, Claptrap’s place was made primarily out of snow, and the layers of ice on the inside should've done well to insulate it and keep the furnace’s heat inside, especially since it had been blazing for hours on end, but the hole cut for the furnace was too big and all the heat flowed up and out. 

The others were still chattering away when she clumsily dropped to the floor in front of the furnace, Hammerlock all but attacking Axton with questions about his condition. 

“...feel great, actually. I mean, that freaky siren power she did made my insides feel like they were crawling with saurian ants, but it was also kinda warm, I guess, like when you’re laying out in the sun on the beach.” Axton told them. That was good, she supposed.

Well, except for the ants thing; that sounded pretty unpleasant.

Maya rubbed her left arm with her gloved hand and huddled closer to the furnace, shivering at the cold sensation that always accompanied the use of her abilities; it wasn’t that it sapped her body heat, per say, so much as the energy from using them was pleasantly warm, and the absence of it after extended use normally left her somewhat chilled. Considering the freezing climate and the fact that she’d used her abilities for far longer than the usual several seconds, even if it was a low-energy skill, she was left almost as cold as the glacier itself. She’d have to remember to thank Krieg for getting the fire going.

_ Ah, shit, I forgot to grab my blanket before coming over here _, she thought, and was about to stand to retrieve it when she felt the rough, itchy fabric fall to her shoulders. What the hell? 

Looking up, Maya saw Krieg hovering somewhat behind her to the left. He must have grabbed the blanket from the couch and brought it over to her, but why? Did he know how cold she was? Maya admitted to herself that she was shivering pretty hard, so it probably wasn’t too unlikely to assume he simply _noticed_. 

His face was angled so that she could only just barely see the lone eye peeking through the mask, but Maya was unable to read the emotions in it, nor his body language. 

“...You certainly like to help.” Maya observed.

Krieg tilted his head at her statement.

“I mean, I’m not, uh, not trying to complain or anything, I just, um… thank you. Again.” 

He grunted in response. 

What was this guy’s deal? First he kills the rats, then he helps Gaige dig her from the wreckage, then he literally carried her through the snow away from the train wreck, _ and then _he goes out and finds medicine specifically for what was fucking with her, and now here he was, bringing her something that she was more than capable of getting herself.

Was he simply motivated primarily by the instinct to help others? He did all of these things without question, and it made Maya think that he was just running around like a lost dog looking for a master.

Maya patted the floor next to her. His actions were nice enough, it was the least she could do to extend basic human decency and offer him a spot next to the furnace so he didn’t freeze either.

Krieg stared at her for a moment before shaking head, turning to return to his spot next to Salvador’s crate. Were his shoulders and neck always so red? It could’ve just been his sunburn, though. 

Huh. Maybe he wasn’t just an empty-headed psycho.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Communication sure is hard when you don't actually know each other


	9. Fireside Chat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More bonding as the vault hunters wait for dinner/breakfast/food

Leaving Claptrap’s place and getting to Liar’s Berg had been unpleasant, to say the least, as Maya had still been quite cold. The outfit she wore was thin, but it was made of high-grade material; it was heavily resistant to wearing and tearing, fireproof, and was excellent at holding in body heat while wicking away moisture. 

The only downside was that she’d removed the left sleeve after her tattoos _ somehow _ started to burn a hole in it, leaving her arm exposed to the cold. Maya had no idea how she’d managed to do it, but she did, and she was even more confused at the fact that it was _ only _ the sleeve that burned. She’d gave the entire outfit a thorough inspection afterwards, and she came to the conclusion that the sleeves were simply made with different materials, somehow, even though they looked like they were the same. 

Thank the stars it was just the sleeve, honestly. Maya would have been in some hot water if the rest of the fabric on her left side had been damaged. Talk about embarrassing, too… 

Well, it was a good thing that no one had been there to see it, as she’d panicked pretty hard when it happened. 

She’d probably be a little warmer if she pulled her pants all the way up so her tattooed hip wasn’t also exposed, but… it was stylish, and the monks hated it when she exposed her skin, so whatever. 

Now, of course, in order to make up for the lack of covering around her bare skin, she kept a constant stream of energy running through her tattoos to compensate for the loss of body heat. It wasn’t a lot, just enough to cause them to emit heat, and also glow faintly.

The vault hunters had left Claptrap’s place not long after Maya healed Axton, and just as Hammerlock had said, the basement of the mayor’s house was lined with crate after crate of frozen and preserved foodstuffs. 

Now, she hated the Order with every fiber of her being, but Maya was already starting to miss the luxury of having a hot meal ready for her, even if it was fitted to match the monks’ dietary restrictions. 

Because the frozen food at Hammerlock’s was… frozen… and not, say, waiting to be digistructed, it needed to be thawed and cooked, which would take some time with the limited technology at their current disposal. Salvador had volunteered to assist Hammerlock, as he claimed he had quite a bit of experience with cooking, on account of being “a grown-ass man,” as he said, and allegedly taught by his abuela. 

Maya would have loved to help as well, but due to the nature of her upbringing, the monks had never let her come within view of a kitchen, much less stoop to _ cook. _They said it was such trivial and menial work that it was beneath a god like her. 

Instead, she had been content to help the other vault hunters find and move what Salvador and Hammerlock needed upstairs to the kitchen.

There had been a lengthy conversation between the group about their various levels of cooking skills, from Gaige and Axton claiming inexperience and incompetence, respectively, to Zer0 merely shrugging and flashing a :/. Krieg had nothing to add to the conversation, and none of them were inclined to ask, as they all dreaded seeing or hearing about whatever abomination someone like him could pass off as _ cooking. _Hammerlock, in particular, had a look on his face that insinuated he’d live a much happier life if he never had to find out. 

Although Maya _ was _a little curious… 

Either way, Hammerlock and Salvador insisted on taking care of it themselves, declining Maya and Zer0’s offers to help and ushering them all out of the kitchen.

Left with nothing to do but wait, the vault hunters minus Salvador found themselves standing in a small, fairly sparse living room, the only furniture or decoration being an old, threadbare loveseat and a matching armchair pushed up in front of a brick fireplace, which thankfully already had a cozy fire going inside, and a stack of split wood against a far wall. 

Zer0 flashed a peace sign and disappeared, while Krieg promptly walked over to the loveseat, set his buzz-axe down to lean against the side, and draped himself across it face down, his legs hanging rather far off one end. Axton and Gaige looked at the armchair, and then at each other, and proceed to race the two or three meters to it to see who could claim it first. When they reached the chair, their friendly competition devolved into a shoving match that ended with Axton sitting lopsided in the chair with Gaige falling over the back onto the floor. 

Maya was content to simply kneel by the fire, glad that she could relax again and warm up properly instead of standing out in the cold night or sitting in the draft of Claptrap’s home. Sitting down fully, she pulled her knees up to her chest and turned her head to the right to watch Gaige and Axton continue their bickering over who got the chair. 

In the end, Gaige won, as Axton finally decided to capitulate, rolling his eyes dramatically and with the barest hint of a smile as he slowly stood to let the teen have the chair. He joined Maya on the floor in front of the fire, crossing his legs when he sat.

“Hey, ah, thanks for fixing me up over at Clappy’s, by the way.” He said lightly, holding his hands towards the flame and rubbing them together.

“Oh, yeah, um, no problem, it was nothing, really. I’m glad I could help.” 

“Really?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “‘Cause from the way you were sweating afterwards, I’d say it was a little more than “nothing.””

He had a point there. “I wasn’t sweating _ that _bad.” Maya said, earning a tilt of Axton’s head and a look that said “yeah, right.” 

This time Maya rolled her own eyes, sighing. “Ok, it was a _little_ difficult, but only because I don’t really use that particular skill that much. I usually focus on the… _ other _aspects of my abilities.” 

Another eyebrow raise. “What kind of skills would those be, if you don’t mind my asking? If we’re going to be working together, I’d like a heads up so I don’t get caught by surprise and think you’re an enemy.” 

That was also a fair point.

“Well… my main ability is called “phaselock.” I channel energy through my tattoos and use it to trap things inside a sphere of, um… _ energy _, I guess. I’m not really sure what it is, myself, but one of the monks back on Athenas described it as being compressed by, like, space itself, or something like that.”

“So, like a black hole?” He pulled his hands away from the fire and shoved them under his armpits.

“Yes! I guess that’s about as good a description as any. Except less, uh… less… disintegrating involved. It's mostly just holding things in place, but sometimes I can use it pull other things in, or move things around with it.” A black hole… that was the first time she’d heard that comparison, but it made far more sense than the long-winded explanations that the monks had pulled out of their asses, always going on about “the balance of the cosmic vibe of the universe” or whatever the fuck they were on. 

Axton nodded like he was beginning to understand. “Like the force.” He said sagely.

The what now? 

“What’s “the force” supposed to be?” 

“You know, the force! From Star Wars?”

Maya tilted her head to the side, perplexed. “I don’t know what that is, Axton, I spent my entire life cut off from the rest of the universe, remember? They didn’t exactly let me have access to the echonet, you know. Is it some kind of religious thing?”

Axton smacked his face, squeezing his eyes shut. “Oh, that’s _ right _ , I forgot.” He groaned. “Sorry. No. Star Wars started out as a movie series a couple hundred years ago, but it got super popular and expanded into, like, comics, and shows, and all kinds of other stuff. Anyways, the force is supposed to be this weird cosmic, uh… _ force, _if you will, that certain people can use as like a kind of a, um, kind of like a psychic power, I guess. It’s kind of hard to explain, y’know?”

“I… think I might understand, but I’m still confused.” That explanation didn’t really _ explain _ anything so much as add even more questions. 

“Ah, you’d just have to watch it.” He said, shaking his head in defeat. 

“Another time, then, perhaps.”

“Another time.” Axton agreed. 

They sat in silence and watched the fire for several minutes before Axton spoke up again.

“So, uh Maya…” He started.

“Hm?”

“How did you end up on the train?” 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” He ran a hand through his hair and focused on the floor for a moment. “Ok, so you know how I said I’d been doing a bit of mercenary work after I left Dahl?” Maya nodded. “Well, right before I heard about the vault hunting gig, I was out by some canyon waaay to the north gettin’ the shit kicked outta me by some bandit dipshits.”

“Ohhh, real impressive, military man.” Maya teased.

“If you’ll just hold _ on _ a moment and let me finish!” He huffed. “Ok, so I got the shit kicked outta me by these bandit dipshits, and after my turret chewed ‘em up and I-”

“Wait, your _ turret? _” Maya cut him off, his stories apparently never ceasing to elicit nothing but questions and no answers.

“Yes, Maya, _ my turret. Anyways! _ I heard a broadcast over the radio advertising Hyperion’s little commercial for the vault hunting gig while I was turnin’ the bandits in. After I collected my reward, I bought myself a shiny new shield and one shiny ticket onto the next Hyperion train that stopped at the town I was in. And that’s how _ I _ended up on the train. What about you?”

He really was just gonna refuse to elaborate on the turret thing, huh?

“Oh, fine.” Maya sighed. “After I killed brother Sophis, the head monk and ringleader, I went back to my room in the monastery and dug out my stash of money, then got rid of anything I didn’t want the monks to find and locked the room up.”

“How’d you kill him? Did you use your, ah, your… um, phase… thing? Er, can you actually _ use _it to kill?”

“Hmm… my phaselocking can cause damage if I want it to, but no, I didn’t use it to kill him. I shot him in the head.”

Axton blinked heavily and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “...Oh. Yeah, I suppose that was kinda the obvious answer.”

“The monks would sometimes send me out to practice my skills on the local bandits and wildlife. Never on my own, of course, they didn’t trust me _ that _ much, but they did provide me with my own shield, gun, and echo, Granted, they hacked the echo so that it was all but useless, but once Sophis was dead, I, ah, _ convinced _one of the monks to either fix what they did or get me one that worked.”

“Which did they choose?”

“Oh, they were so terrified that they tried to do both.” Maya explained. “I’m still using the original one they gave me, but now I also have an extra just in case.”

Axton looked impressed. “Ah. Smart. Nice work. And after you left Athenas?”

“Oh! Right.” Maya slapped her knee. She had almost forgotten what she’d actually been trying to explain in the first place. “So I took what savings I had, and what the remaining monks offered as an, ahhh, _apology_, and got a ticket to Pandora. I had to stop on Eden-5 and switch shuttles ‘cause the ones on Athenas apparently don’t actually go to Pandora. Once I got here, I spent, like, uh, two normal days, I think, or barely less than a whole Pandoran day, wandering around and searching for a train station. Killed a bunch of bandits in the process, too.”

“Wouldn’t there be a train station at… wherever it was you landed at?”

“There was, but Hyperion didn’t run on it. It was an old train from the Dahl occupation.”

“Ah, that’s right!” Axton said, sitting up a little straighter. “I forgot that Pandora used to be under Dahl jurisdiction. Damn, how fuckin’ ironic is it that I’d end up here to try to get away from them.” He shook his head in disbelief, his right hand rising to absentmindedly rub the chevrons in his forehead. 

Maya waited for him to snap out of his little moment, watching as regret, sadness, and bemusement passed over his face. When he looked back up to her, she resumed. “So eventually I found this bus service that drove me to one of the Hyperion stations. I sat out there for _ hours _until the train finally arrived. And when I turned around to scan the desert, you know what I saw?”

“Bandits? Skags? A horde of angry midgets? Handsome Jack, the CEO of Hyperion?” He guessed, clearly putting out the most random shit he could think of.

“No!” Maya lifted her right arm and pointed to the couch. “_ Krieg. _ I thought he was another one of those fucking bandit assholes, and he started yelling some weird shit at me, so I started shooting at him.” She was surprised at how animated she’d gotten while talking with Axton. It felt kind of weird, but it was nice to have someone who was about the same age as her to actually talk to and bond with, someone who wasn’t just another closeted monk who thought of her as a frightening god. 

Axton’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit! Did you hit him? What did he do?”

“He stumbled over to a rock to shield himself, but I managed to get him in the leg. I healed it up when we got on the train, but I still feel really bad about it, even though he didn’t really react to it. It turned out he was trying to warn me that there were a bunch of rats behind me, and I didn’t notice until he threw that big-ass axe of his at one. Once they were all dead, we got on the train. I’m sure you know the rest from there.”

The soldier nodded. “Yeah, for the most part. Man, talk about wild first-impressions.” He chuckled. 

“Tell me about it.” Maya thought back to the train, replaying the events over in her head for the dozenth time since it happened. “Oh, hey, do you happen to know if Sal and Zer0 were injured at all? Neither of them looked any worse for wear.”

“Hmm…” Axton thought for a minute, staring into the fire. “I think Sally got launched into a snowdrift, so aside from a couple scorch marks, he was mostly fine. I’m not entirely sure about Zer0, but I guess they were on top of the train killing some engineers when the dynamite went off. My guess would be they did one of their weird ninja stunts and parkoured away, but I’m just throwin’ stuff out. I don’t actually know. I know Gaige got a little roughed up, but she had her robot catch her. What about Krieg? He looks pretty bloody, and his skin’s a little on the cooked side, but he doesn’t seem to have a single scratch.”

“Ah… oh… You know, I’m not actually sure. We all must’ve just got caught up in the situation and forgot to check on him.” Maya confessed. Why was it so easy for her and the other to so casually forget about him? “I mean, he _ seemed _fine, so it didn’t really occur to me that he might’ve been injured, you know?”

“Yeah… I get what you mean. But his left shoulder is pretty bloody, I just assumed you guys had given him one of Gaige’s hypos.”

Maya shook her head. “Not that I saw. He was with Gaige when they found me, maybe she knows.”

Axton looked from Maya to Gaige, who was curled up in the armchair and sleeping pretty contentedly. “...Or we could just ask the big guy.” He said. It seemed a little unfair to her to wake up Krieg just to ask him a question when they were unwilling to do the same to Gaige, but, well… whatever. They were curious. 

Getting to her knees, Maya crawled over to the couch where Krieg lay. He was far too tall to fit on the loveseat, his legs stuck out pretty far off the end, but his face was buried in a shapeless pillow he’d wrapped his arms around. How was he even comfortable? How was he even _ breathing? _ He looked like a fresh corpse, save the slow rise and fall that indicated he was at least breathing, if not conscious.

Just as Axton said, his entire left shoulder was caked in dry, flaking blood, but underneath the grime, his skin appeared about as unmarred as he could get, certainly not like he’d recently walked away from a derailed train.

Cautiously, Maya raised her tattooed hand to gently set it against his bloodied bicep. “Krieg.” She said softly, not wanting to take him by surprise.

Slowly, he lifted his head and turned it so his eye was looking at her. 

“Do you mind if I ask you something?”

Pushing himself up, he repositioned so he was sitting where his head had been. Maya backed away a little to give him some room as he did.

He grunted, but Maya could tell it was about as close to “what?” as he would probably get.

Maya stood and sat on the other side of the couch. Axton had swiveled around to face the two, his hands gripping the ankles of his crossed legs as he watched with interest.

“So, um… when the train crashed, did you… get hurt at all?” She asked the man. 

Krieg, who turned his entire body to face Maya, stared down at her, the disgruntled look in his eye from earlier gone. 

“It’s just, um, just that it occurred to Axton and I that we never actually, like… _ checked _ to make sure you were alright. We just, uh, sorta assumed you were fine. I mean, you didn’t _ seem _injured, so…” She trailed off, looking down from his mask to the floor. Agh, the way he looked at her with his weirdly intense gaze made her feel like he was judging her, like she was doing something wrong just by opening her mouth. 

She looked up again a second later, the movement from his head tilting to the side dragging her attention to his masked face. Oddly enough, the look in his eye had taken on a slightly amused look. 

_ Oh, great, now he’s gonna start laughing at my dumbass question, _Maya thought. Wonderful. 

“Fire can’t cook _ my _meat.” He growled at a surprisingly normal volume level, like he was actually taking some consideration for the fact that Gaige was sleeping.

On the floor, Axton snickered into his palm. 

Krieg glanced over at him for a moment before continuing. “Turned the pretty _ blue _ice into a crimson slip ‘n’ slide, painting a bloody fresco along the ground with my torn flesh!” He dragged out the word “blue” like he was trying to make a point, but Maya no idea what it could’ve possibly been. 

A bloody slip and slide… “So… you… were thrown from the train, and you landed on the ice?” Maya asked, trying to break his answer down and decode it bit by bit.

Krieg nodded.

“And you… skidded along, but because you don’t have anything protecting you, it…?” 

“That’s probably why his left shoulder’s all bloody.” Axton said. “That’s gotta be the side he landed on, and the impact and the friction must’ve tore away some of his skin. What I don’t understand is why aside from all the blood, and his other, um… issues… he looks perfectly fine.”

This time, it was Krieg’s turn to laugh, cackling low and maniacally, snorting as his shoulders shook and he tossed his head back. “Nothing can keep me down! My flesh is forever!”

Hmm… Maya was starting to suspect that maybe Krieg wasn’t entirely… _ normal, _ so to speak. Obviously, he was very _ far _ from normal, but there had to be something more to him than meets the eye. The gunshot in his leg had been fresh, not even 20 minutes old, yet when she poured energy into it, it felt like it had already started healing when it shouldn’t have even stopped _ bleeding _at that point.

“Hey, Krieg?”

His laughter slowed until it ceased, and he tilted his head again and waited for her to continue.

“Um… do you mind if I, uh, if I take a look at the shoulder you landed on? I’d like to see something.” Maya had a theory, but in their current setting, she didn’t have a way of testing if it was true without harming him. 

Actually, she didn’t have a way of testing it _ at all _ without him being harmed.

Krieg hesitated, but he gave a sharp nod, turning to sit straight on the couch and leaning forward so Maya didn’t have to stretch up to reach his shoulder. 

Right as she was about to move closer, it occurred to her that it would most definitely be easier if he wasn’t caked in blood. “Ah, sorry, just give me a second, I’m gonna find something to clean the blood off with.” Maya told the two men, then stood and walked to the kitchen.

Through the door, she could hear Salvador and Hammerlock talking and laughing amongst each other. She turned the handle and slowly pushed it open and leaned in, catching the attention of Hammerlock, who stood in front of a stove.

The pleasant expression on his face changed into confusion and mild concern. “Eh, yes? What is it?” 

“Hate to bother you, but do you guys have, like, a wet rag or something we can borrow? Krieg’s still all bloody from the crash.” Maya explained.

Salvador, who was at a counter chopping something with his back to her, turned when he heard her speak. “Of course, hermana!” He shouted over the stove fan, setting his knife down and side-stepping to a sink next to him.

A moment later, he met Maya by the door and handed her a small, faded, ripped towel.

“Ah, thank you.” Maya said as she took the fabric and closed the door. It was warm to the touch, and a few drops of water fell onto the floor.

Returning to the couch, Maya sat down on Krieg’s left side. He had pulled his arm out of the leather harness around his shoulders, leaving it to hang precariously behind him, and turned his head to the side to watch her from the corner of his eye as she ran the rag over his skin. The flaky blood wiped away to reveal a mottled mess of scarring, as well as some noticeable tan lines from his harness. When she got closer to his arm, Krieg reached over with his other hand and held it out like he wanted Maya to hand it to him.

She obliged, and he cleaned his arm himself while Maya focused her attention on his shoulder and back. 

Running her left hand over the area, Maya focused her energy like she was going to heal him, trying to sense any damage that might remain. It seemed that the intense heat that had radiated off of him after the crash hadn’t _ just _been a disparity in temperature caused by her freezing, nor the result of her mind playing tricks on her. Back on the train, Maya had chalked it up to his sunburn, but this was… unnatural.

It almost felt like he was on _ fire _. 

Could it be that that was why he’d declined a spot by the furnace earlier? Because he was already burning up?

Maybe he just had a fever… But how could he manage to function as well as he did if that was the case? He seemed to be suffering from dehydration, certainly, but even so, if it _ was _ a fever, he showed no signs of discomfort or overheating. His body wasn’t trying to cool itself off, nor did he exhibit any of the symptoms of heat stroke. 

Regardless, Maya couldn’t find any signs of damage on his shoulder or upper back. “Did Gaige give you one of her hypos?” 

Krieg stilled for a moment, then shook his head. Having finished with the rag, he dropped it onto the arm of the couch to his right.

“Well, I’m not sensing any injuries here, recent or not, so you either found and used a hypo between then and now, or…” She trailed off.

Axton yawned. “Wait, you think he just… completely healed from whatever happened to him? On his own? _ Already?” _ He looked incredulously at Maya, like she’d suggested Krieg was an alien or something. 

“Well… yeah. I mean, it wouldn’t be the strangest thing. Besides, it’s not like there are any other possibilities, you know?”

“Hghhnnn… Mother’s painfully poisonous purple paste plastered my psychomachy psyche with paranormal regeneration…” Krieg choked out, the hand on his bicep flexing and digging his fingertips into the skin like it itched. 

Both Maya and Axton looked at each other, then at Krieg.

“...What?” Maya asked the larger man, vastly more confused than she’d been a second ago, and now also concerned. Painfully poisonous purple paste? What the fuck was he talking about? _ Mother? _ Why was he tensing up and scratching at himself like that? 

Axton looked just as confused as Maya did, though the sudden tensing of Krieg seemed to go over his head. 

Krieg showed no intention to elaborate, so Maya simply shook her head slightly and resumed. 

Closing her eyes, she resumed the flow of energy and moved her hand from his shoulder towards his arm. When she reached the front of the joint, she sensed the remains of a small puncture that went deep into the meat of his bicep. Maya reduced the amount of energy so that it wouldn’t cause him to heal, but enough so she could still examine the wound.

It was minute, slow-going enough that if she had been paying any less attention, it would be unnoticeable, but the flesh inside the wound was healing itself at pace far outrunning that of any normal person. At the rate it was healing, and based on how far it still had to go, Maya estimated that it had another hour or two before it completely closed.

Opening her eyes, Maya removed her hand. “Uhhh, Krieg?” 

He turned to look at her.

“What happened to your arm? It feels like another bullet wound. When did you get shot again? Was it when you guys went to get Hammerlock?”

“Tinderbox’s little fleshy rippers thought they could get the drop on _ me.” _ Like everything else he said, it took her a moment to comprehend, but that sounded like a _ yes _ if she ever heard one. 

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Maya was concerned about his growing tendency to simply ignore his injuries, even if they did heal abnormally quickly and efficiently. “You didn’t have to deal with it by yourself, you know.”

Krieg didn’t respond, but the expression in his eye changed as Maya spoke, going from the intense, focused glare he usually wore to mild confusion, and then finally settling on… what was that? In the context of who Krieg had so far proved to be - an incoherent madman with more mystery surrounding him than any of them could have ever guessed, or anticipated - the emotion he displayed was entirely unusual: a measure of appreciation and acknowledgement mixed with understanding and _ weariness _ , like Maya’s last sentence alone had made him tired _ . _

It was almost like someone completely different was looking through his eye at her.

Just as soon as she registered it, the look was gone, a single blink and his focused gaze returned, although it had lost some of its intensity. 

Huh, that was weird.

“Uh, yeah, dude, we can’t be a functioning team if one of us is dead in a ditch ‘cause he was too proud to speak up.” Said Axton. He had let go of his ankles and leaned back, his palms pressed to the floor. “You’ve got no idea how many times I watched another soldier die, or found their corpse out in the field, ‘cause their shields failed and they took a hit they thought they could walk off. Happens all the time. Hell, I’ve even done it a time or two myself, but that don’t make it any better.”

Maya raised an eyebrow. “Well, look at you distributing sagely advice, poster boy. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Like when Gaige complained about him acting like a dad, Axton recoiled, his mouth hanging open in a look of mock horror, causing Krieg to let out a deranged giggle and a snort, which in turn made Maya smirk.

“And here I thought we were getting on so well! I was even going to name one of my children after you!” He cried, placing one of his hands over his chest like he’d been wounded.

Rolling her eyes, Maya turned her attention to Krieg’s arm, placing her hand over the remains of the gunshot to heal it the rest of the way. He jumped in surprise when she touched him, as he’d been turned towards Axton, but he relaxed when he realized what she was doing. 

“You know, Axton, I discovered something when I was checking his arm.”

“Oh, and what would _ that _ be, hmm?” The soldier still looked betrayed, but Maya was sure he’d get over it.

She pulled her hand away from Krieg once the wound was gone. He reached his arm behind him to grab the loose end of the harness and pulled it on, catching it on the protrusion on his brace in the process. “He heals about a kajillion times faster than normal. I mean, that gunshot I just healed in his arm was from when he went to get Hammerlock earlier, which was, like, um…” Maya counted on her fingers. “Like five hours ago, and it was already mostly healed up.”

“Wait, so… he really _ did _ just heal from the crash on his own? _ Weird! _I wonder why.” He tilted his head to the side and furrowed his brows. 

“Beats me.” Maya shrugged. “Do you know, Krieg?”

Krieg vigorously shook his head.

“You know…” Axton started. He looked like he had something pressing weighing on his mind, but was hesitant to bring it up.

“What is it?” 

“Well… Krieg doesn’t have a shield, does he? Or an echo?” He looked at Maya for a second before something else dawned on him. “Shit! Wait, I mean, _ you _ don’t have a shield or an echo, _ do _you, big guy? Like, uh, obviously you don’t have a shield, but do you have an echo, at least?”

Again, Krieg shook his head.

“Damn.” Axton rolled his head backwards and stared at the ceiling. “Wait!” He snapped his head up. “Maya, you said the monks gave you that other echo, right? When you left Athenas?”

“Oh! Yes, they did.” Maya scooted away from Krieg to her side of the couch and opened up her storage deck to search for the spare echo. When she found it, she flicked the switch on it to make sure it still worked. The echo was old, an outdated version made by the Jakobs corporation, and despite the fine mahogany finish and elegant designs inscribed into the metal casing, it whirred and buzzed loudly. “Ah… yeah, that’s right, there was a reason why I didn’t switch to this one.” Sighing, Maya dropped her hands and looked over at Krieg, who had sat up and was now lounging against the back of the couch, one arm draped along the arm of the couch while the other rested on his thigh. 

“It’s on its last legs, but hopefully it should last long enough for us to get to Sanctuary and find you something halfway decent.” She offered the echo to Krieg, who blinked in surprise at the gesture. 

Unsure, he reached over and accepted the echo, holding it up to inspect it. 

“Um… you… _ do _know how to use an echo, right?” Axton asked.

Krieg looked down at him and glared, then returned his attention to the echo, raising his other hand to grip the side while he activated it. His fingers moved with a practiced grace as he went through the settings and set the echo up, quickly and deftly tapping the buttons on the holo-screen like it was something he’d done a thousand times over and then some. When he was done, he leaned a bit towards Maya and attached it to the right side of his belt, then relaxed again and pointedly looked at Axton. 

“Alright, alright, sorry, goddamn.” Was his response to the glare. 

Leaning against the arm on her side of the couch, Maya pulled her legs up and sighed. “Ok, so we’ve got you an echo, now we’ve just gotta find a shield. Right.”

“Aw, man, how are we even gonna find one out here? There ain’t shit out here but bandits.” Axton dropped his head.

“Maybe we could take one off one of the bandits…?” It wasn’t the _ best _ idea, sure, but it was the only option they had at the moment. 

“Maybe Hammerlock’ll know…”

“You could always go ask him.”

Axton groaned at that, his arms sliding out to the sides as he dropped himself down onto the floor. “I’m so tired, though! I just wanna take a nap.”

Now that he mentioned it, Maya was starting to feel her own eyes getting heavier the more she relaxed into the loveseat, a nap was starting to sound _ really _good. She raised a hand to her mouth as she yawned. “Yeah, I feel you there. It can wait until later though, right big guy?”

Glancing over her shoulder at Krieg, the man met her gaze. He didn’t say anything or make a move, but the look in his eye told her all she needed to know. Maya threw him a small smile. “Yeah, I thought so. Gaige over there has got the right idea.” She shifted so she was facing the back of the couch and curled herself into a comfortable ball, resting her head on the arm and closing her eyes. 

“Oh, I see how it is, you two are just gonna leave me to sleep on the floor.” Axton complained behind her.

Maya smirked. “Yep, sure am. Though if you ask nicely, I’m sure Krieg would let you cuddle with him.” She teased. 

Axton made a strangled noise caught somewhere between shock and an awkward cough. “I, um, ahhh, no thanks.” He stuttered, causing Krieg to giggle. 

“Are you sure? He’s nice and warm, I’m sure you’ll be real cozy.” 

“Flaming hot!” Krieg added, his giggling turning into cackling. There was a soft _fwup _noise that sounded suspiciously like a pillow hitting someone.

Axton coughed again. “Ah, you know what, I, uh, I think I’m good on the, ah, on the floor.” Maya couldn’t see Axton’s reaction, but there was no mistaking the embarrassment in his voice; it seemed she struck a nerve. Interesting… 

The more she thought about it, though, the more inviting the idea sounded. Krieg _ was _warm… and although the crash from the train had been an all-around shitty experience for everyone involved, she had to admit, being carried around by a human space heater hadn’t been the worst part. 

She thought back even further to before the crash, when she’d introduced herself in the dining car. Why did he… _ do that? _ It didn’t necessarily make her uncomfortable, per say, just… confused. Perhaps she’d never know, what with the coherence of his speech being sketchy at best. His motives were about as clear as mud. 

And that Axton… he was a weird one, but on a completely different level from the others. Zer0 was weird in that they were mysterious and cagey, whereas Gaige and Krieg were weird in that they were loud and unpredictable, and Salvador was weird because while he seemed to fit the outward stereotype for a typical Pandoran, beneath the boisterous laughter and swearing like a truxican sailor was a surprisingly caring man. Axton was weird in that he was just so… _ normal. _

Truth be told, Maya hadn’t expected him to react so strongly to her teasing, but the way he’d stared at Krieg when they were at Claptrap’s and blushed like a nervous teenager, she couldn’t just _ not _take advantage of it. 

On the other side of the small couch, Krieg shifted his weight around. Maya lifted her head slightly and watched as he turned sideways, kicking his legs up onto the arm she was laying against and crossing them. His feet dangled over the edge, leaving the sides of his knees and a thigh pressed against Maya’s back. Folding his arms over his chest, Krieg let out a deep sigh and tipped his head down onto the arm.

Maya settled again and closed her eyes again, content to let the warmth from him seep into her shoulders as she drifted off, her dreams filled memories of fire and the sun’s embrace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta admit, this was a fun one to write


	10. Protection From The Elements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who would've guessed that finding a shield would be such a time consuming process

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited and uploaded this chapter entirely on my phone while in an appointment, so please just bear with me here

The view from his office was… amazing, but gross. Out of all the planets that Hyperion, and by extension, _ Jack _ , had control over, Pandora was the largest. He _ owned _ this world, this vast, empty shithole that would bring him enough power and wealth to achieve his dream of _ order _. Finally. 

The vastness of space stretching out before him, he currently had a clear view of the massive eridium scar slashing open the side of the planet, all that purple ore spilling out from the remains of the vault of the Destroyer. It was almost beautiful, in a way, but disgusting all the same. So many bandits, so many lawless ingrates and bastards, all of them standing in his way and polluting his planet with their evil.

Jack was seated at his desk, his chair swiveled to face the windows behind him. The latest group of vault hunting assholes had been sent to the southern shelf to be dealt with. Unfortunately, according to Angel, five had managed to survive the rigged train.

But that was alright. Jack had _ plans, _glorious plans for them. He didn’t count on them making it past the bandits on the shelf, but if they somehow did, then he had Angel standing by to put his plans into motion. 

Sure, they had been a _ little _ last minute, but they would work. Of course they would, all of his plans had worked thus far. He wouldn’t even _ be _in his current situation if they didn’t. 

Man, was he good!

A buzz from his desk interrupted his procrastinating. He turned the chair back around and, sitting up, pressed a button to answer the call.

“What is it now?” Jack demanded, building back up his business voice.

The high-pitched sound of the voice of Hyperion cut through over the speaker, announcing that an employee was on their way to his office with some things he’d ordered be brought up. 

“It’s about freakin’ time! I’ve been waitin’ forever.” He told her. God _ damn _ she was so annoying. One day he would get someone in to replace her. 

He was bored out of his mind, waiting around for the bandits to get those vault hunters, so he entertained himself by holding his legs out and spinning the chair around and tapping at the leather armrests. Angel was monitoring their progress and would let him know if and when they died. 

She was _ supposed to _ , at least. God knew that girl was getting too free spirited lately. Jack wondered if it was the constant stream of eridium that was making her a little _ too _ brazen. Maybe it was just a teenager thing? After all, she _ was _ approaching her 19th birthday, it could be that that was making her think she could just do things on her own.

Or it could’ve been that vault hunter, the siren chick who somehow didn’t have any connection to eridium. What was her name again? Ah, he didn’t care. Not that it even mattered, anyways; he couldn’t control her with the siren collar if she wasn’t connected to eridium, therefore she was essentially _ useless _ to him as a backup. How the hell did Angel know if she had no connection to that gross purple shit, the bandit was a _ siren, _for Pete’s sake! All of the other sirens he’d found so far were connected to eridium in some form or another, why should she be any different?

Whatever. She was on Pandora now, and that was what mattered. 

After several minutes of mindlessly spinning in circles and tapping out the tune to some song stuck in his head, Jack heard the telltale sound of the doors to his office opening. He scrambled to sit up, smoothing his jacket out just in time as a petit secretary strode into the room carrying a paper bag. Accepting the bag from her, Jack dismissed her without a second word, and she promptly hustled her butt back out the door.

The off-white bag from Helios’ shopping mall district had a few small grease stains near the bottom, and one large stain growing along one of the sides from the bag’s contents; the top was folded down to keep it shut. Opening the top, Jack reached a hand inside and pulled out three foldable cardboard food containers of moderate size, each containing hot, steaming pretzels. 

“Ah, perfect, just in time.”

Jack was about to lift one to take a bite when Angel’s voice drifted through his echo. 

“I’m sorry sir, but the vault hunters have reached the town of Liar’s Berg.” She said, that annoying static from her weird phaseshift power making his echo, and his brain, crackly.

Jack set the pretzel down. “Oh, Really? It’s about damn time, I’ve been waiting for hours. What are they doing now, Angel?”

“They appear to be joining forces with the town’s remaining resident, a scholar from the Hammerlock family, but right now they are attacking a small bandit encampment just outside the town’s gates.”

Liar’s Berg… that annoying little hamlet had been a pain in his ass for months before he sent Wilhelm in to finally put a stop to the bandit raiders holed up there. It wasn’t a particularly exciting or memorable outing, but he _ did _ get to kill that long-time standing _ bitch _ that ran the place. “Alright, Angel, put me through to them. I think I’d like to say hi to these idiots.” 

“Right away, sir.”

Jack turned his chair to face the window again, to face Pandora, and lifted the pretzel back up, smirking with confidence as he bit into the warm bread. 

Oh, those assholes had no idea what was comin’ to ‘em.

* * *

Maya stared down the scope of her smg at the bandits below her. 

She was just outside the north gate of Liar’s Berg, kneeling next to a rusted telescope and the cold, dead remains of a firepit with Zer0, Krieg, and Axton meandering nearby. Well, Axton and Krieg were meandering, but she didn’t know where Zer0 was; they seemed to have disappeared and run off. Again. She was beginning to wonder if this was going to be a constant thing with them, as it could very easily turn out to be more of an inconvenience for one of the team to just be off doing their own thing while the others were out fighting. Unless they were doing it to offer ranged assistance? Maya wasn’t sure, but she really hoped that that’s what it was. 

Some few hours after Maya and the others passed out in front of the fireplace, Hammerlock woke them up to announce that him and Salvador had finished cooking. Once everyone was up, they all helped bring the food into an adjacent room to eat; even Zer0 joined them, despite the fact that they didn’t eat, flashing a smiley face as the rag-tag group joked and bantered. 

Hammerlock had remarked that he thought they made entirely too much for the six of them that were eating, but the combined appetites of Salvador and Krieg made Maya worry that maybe they _ hadn’t _made enough. Gaige dug in voraciously, but even her borderline rabid enthusiasm was nowhere near as impressive as the way with which Salvador managed to inhale whatever he scooped onto his plate. It was, however, pretty amusing how he neatly dabbed a napkin at his beard every time something fell into it.

When they’d all sat down, they watched Krieg with bated breath, expecting him to remove his mask. He didn’t, much to Hammerlock’s disappointment. Instead, he’d pushed it up just enough to be able to eat unhindered, revealing a rather thick, strong jawline and pair of cracked and bloody lips, no doubt caused by the desert heat. What little skin Maya could see was lined with various scars, but the lighting was too poor to clearly make out any individual ones. She didn’t want to stare, either.

The man was obviously trying to take his time and enjoy the food, but there was a jerkiness to Krieg’s movements suggesting that patience was the last thing he wanted to be exercising. Considering he looked like he was literally starving, Maya couldn’t blame him. 

Once they all had their fill, Axton and Maya brought the topic of finding Krieg a shield up to Hammerlock. The gentleman had clasped his hands and hmm’d for a moment before suggesting they head up to a safehouse outside the town.

Salvador volunteered to stay behind and help Hammerlock clean up, and Gaige made a mumbling claim that she wanted to do some tune-ups on Deathtrap, so it was just the four of them. 

After raising the north gate, Maya led them down the slope out of Liar’s Berg. The road continued its downward path for some distance before eventually leveling out on what looked like a frozen shore, though with the amount of snow covering the ice, it was nearly impossible to tell where the shoreline actually began. A small cluster of ramshackle buildings sat on the base of the slope, and few bandits bundled in furs sat huddled around a measly fire. 

Like she had earlier, Maya channeled her power through her tattoos to keep her exposed skin warm.

To the left of the bandit camp, far off near the center of the frozen harbor, stood the safehouse perched on a thick spire of ice, and hopefully inside was a functional shield for Krieg. 

Maya dropped the smg scope away from her face and looked around for Zer0. The sun had started to come up, cracking over the horizon and causing her to squint and raise her hand to shield her eyes from some of the light reflecting off the ice surrounding them. 

Axton turned towards her from where he stood some two meters away, and had opened his mouth to speak when their echos crackled. 

A stranger’s voice called out to them over the flimsy connection.

“Hey! Handsome Jack, here! How -- ah, these pretzels suck… So, how’s your day been, guys?” Maya whipped her head around in surprise, then glanced down at her echo. Why the hell was _ he _contacting them? 

“We haven’t really talked yet, what with me leaving you guys for dead. Hey, you think you’ll freeze to death out there? Nah, probably not. The bandits’ll get you first.”

OH! _ Oh. _Oh, no. Maya did not like where this was going.

“My day? It’s been pretty good. Just bought a pony made of _ diamonds _ , because I’m _ rich _. So, you know. That’s cool. Kay, bye.” The connection cut out. 

Axton, who had jumped at the sound of the man’s voice suddenly pouring from his echo, gaped at Maya. “What in the _ fresh hell _ was that?” He demanded. 

A moment later, Zer0 appeared out of thin air next to Axton, flashing an angry face emoji. “How did he manage/ To contact us? My echo/ Is unreachable.” It seemed even they were shocked. 

Maya’s echo crackled again, but this time it was a connection from Salvador. “Hey! You guys heard that too, right?! Tell me I’m not going crazy over here!” He sounded distraught, and rightfully so.

“No, I definitely heard that asshole.” There was Gaige, joining the conference call that they were apparently starting. Maya, Zer0, and Axton agreed with the teen that they’d also heard it.

Krieg had been standing on the edge of the icy cliff, looking out over the harbor, when Salvador and Gaige echo’d them. When he heard them panicking, he walked over to where Maya and the others stood, a vastly confused look in his eye. 

“You heard it, too, right, Krieg?” Gaige asked.

He shook his head. “Who dares disturb the pretty blue?!” He shouted at Maya.

“Wait… you seriously didn’t hear that?” Asked Axton. “That asshole was right in our ears! Tell me you just weren’t paying attention.”

The confusion in his eye only grew as he tilted his head. “I’m _ always _listening for the slaughter!” 

“Wait a minute.” Maya interjected. “Do you think… maybe he didn’t hear it because that fucker didn’t connect to his echo?” None of the vault hunters had their echos set to let their audio blare out loud, especially not on _ Pandora _, so the only way Krieg would have been able to hear Handsome Jack speaking would be if the dipshit had contacted him as well. 

“Maybe his echo doesn’t work right?” Salvador suggested.

Maya shook her head. “No, it may be an old model, but it works, trust me. I wouldn’t have given it to him if it didn’t.”

“But why would he contact the five of us and not Krieg?” Came Gaige’s equally confused voice.

“Maybe he doesn’t know Krieg has an echo?” Axton suggested. “I mean, he did only get it like a couple hours ago, at the most.”

Beside them, Krieg started up a low growl that quickly turned into loud, frustrated shout, throwing his head back, the knuckles on the hand holding his axe turning white.

Maya turned her head to face him, her eyes widening in surprise. “Oh, right, I’m so sorry, Krieg! Handsome Jack, the CEO of Hyperion, somehow contacted all of us to gloat. We don’t know how, or why, he didn’t contact you, as well.” She apologized, feeling bad that they’d ignored his confusion; she kicked herself mentally and made a note to not be so insensitive the next time something like that happened. _ If _it happened again. Hopefully not, though. 

Axton sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and cast his gaze down, turning his face a little to the side.

At the mention of Jack’s name, Krieg’s eye had gone wide. By the time Maya finished speaking, the shock had been replaced by what she could only describe as just… anger? Over the short time she’d known him, he’d displayed frustration, hostility, and annoyance, but this was the first time he showed actual _ anger _. 

The other two didn’t seem to notice his sudden shift in mood, as they were busy speaking with Salvador, Gaige, and now Hammerlock and Claptrap, over the echo. Maya lowered the volume on her own echo as she stepped closer to Krieg, stopping about a meter away.

“Krieg…? Are you alright?” The man didn’t seem to hear her. He was staring at some unidentifiable point behind her, his breathing sped up; he even seemed to be putting off more heat than before, Maya could feel it radiating off of him, even with the distance between them.

Mumbling to himself, Krieg dropped his axe and brought his hands up to scratch at his head and neck, desperately pawing at the mask’s leather straps like he was resisting the urge to tear it off. Why was he doing that?

Maya stepped forward a little more and reached her gloved hand up to set it against his arm, hoping to get his attention without raising her voice.

Jerking his arms down away from his skull, and causing Maya to pull her own back, Krieg snapped his neck to face her. _ Wow, _ did he look _ pissed _. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

Krieg stared at her for several seconds, the heat nearly overwhelming as his furious eye bore into her. Why was he so angry suddenly? 

“Jack…” His voice dropped to a deep, guttural murmur, drawing the name out like it was something tangible he could grip and tear apart. 

“I know, big guy, I’m not happy about it, either.” Maya wasn’t sure why mentioning Jack made him so angry, but she supposed it could’ve just been because of the train incident. Unless… maybe he had a previous experience with the CEO? No, no, that was almost as unlikely as Sophis coming back from the grave for revenge. It was far more likely that it was simply Hyperion in general, but what could they have possibly done, aside from try to kill them, that would activate an instant rage response in Krieg, and at the mention of the CEO’s name specifically? 

Maya had yet to see the supposed wanted posters for the others that Zer0 had mentioned, and if they were right in _ all _of them being wanted by Hyperion, then where did that leave Krieg in all of it? Were they all wanted simply because they boarded that train, or had Krieg run into Hyperion before? If he did, what happened to warrant them putting a bounty out on him? What was he wanted for? Was it related to Krieg’s anger at the CEO?

Well, she wasn’t gonna get any answers out of him at that particular moment, and they still had the tasks set before them, so for the time being, Maya preferred to have him calm down as opposed to fume. But how? A distraction would probably be their best bet, it usually was with stuff like that, something to take his mind off Jack.

Turning back to Axton and Zer0, Maya called over to them. “Hey, guys!” They looked over at her. “I say let’s worry about that jackass _ later _and focus on getting Krieg here a shield. This isn’t really the place to be discussing it.”

Axton frowned, but he didn’t try to argue.

Looking back up to Krieg, Maya gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile and nod, then made her way from the firepit down towards the bandits. Behind her, she could hear the crunching of snow under boots as Axton followed. She glanced back as she walked just in time to see Zer0 disappear again and Krieg bend down to grab his axe.

They didn’t exactly have a plan of attack, considering none of them were familiar with each others fighting styles, but since there weren’t that many bandits ahead, they all agreed to just try not to get in anyone else’s way. Out of the corner of her eye, Maya saw a black speck moving along the cliff along her right. Turning her eyes upward, she saw a swarm of rakks circling far off in the distance, as well as a glimpse of Zer0 dropping to a crouch and producing a sniper rifle. 

Oh. So they _ were _going for the ranged attack kind of approach. Maya kind of wished that they’d specified that before they just ran off, but it couldn’t be helped.

Their plan was about as simple as they could get: head in guns blazing while Krieg took up the rear defense, same as the train. It was unlikely that the vault hunters would be able to sneak up on them now that the sun was creeping up and bathing the harbor in bright light, intensified by all the snow and ice reflecting it every which way, not to mention directly into Maya’s eyes.

Once the first bandit looked up to see them approaching, Maya phaselocked them, making sure to pull in the other bandits around the campfire, as well as the two or three that stood watch nearby, signalling Axton to open fire while they were still confused. Between the two of them, and Zer0, the small band was dead within seconds.

Krieg stood watch near the collapsed bridge leading to the safehouse, frozen underneath the harbor’s ice, and Maya stood watch on the other side of the camp, near another frozen and collapsed bridge leading towards what looked like a shipwreck far off in the distance, while Axton tossed the camp in search of anything they could use. When he hollered for the others, he showed his findings of several clips for Maya’s smg and a few rounds for Zer0’s sniper, along with a haphazard pile of miscellaneous ammunition that they divided up between the three of them when Zer0 rejoined the party.

Only one of the bandits had had a shield, but it was cracked and leaking fluid out the side, and proceeded to combust when Axton tried to reactivate it, causing the soldier to jump back in surprise and drop it into the snow.

“Well…” He whistled, holding his hands up by his head as the vault hunters watched the shield burn and pop. “Guess that’s a no-go.” 

Maya crossed her arms and tilted her head forward, frowning. “Hopefully the safehouse will have something a little more stable.”

The four of them stood in silence around the burning shield until the flames petered out moments later, then made their way over the ice. 

Maya was glad that she was abe to keep warm enough out in the extreme temperatures, but damn, she really hadn’t anticipated or prepared for the apparent danger that was walking across a frozen harbor; her feet slipped and slid every time she stepped somewhere that wasn’t covered in crunchy snow, and had even nearly gone through the ice in a few places where putting her full weight down had caused it to crack, making a rather concerningly loud creaking noise as she did. 

The others didn’t appear to have much trouble, though, which Maya was mildly envious of. Axton and Krieg were slow-going, picking their way over the ice ahead of her and Zer0, but she had yet to see either of them slip or fall once.

She could understand Axton and Zer0 not having trouble with the ice, as they were both far more likely to have boots with decent traction, considering their previous lines of work must have taken them to various, vastly different climates. It paid off to always be prepared, a sentiment that Maya was starting to appreciate the longer she spent on Pandora. 

But what about Krieg? The man was huge, how was it that he hadn’t fallen through, or even broken, the ice when Maya had cracked it several times herself? Maybe it was the fact that he was ahead of her that was causing her to crack the ice… She could see the logic in having the heaviest go first, so as to verify that the ice could support the rest of them, but fuck, was it really worth weakening it?

Whatever, not like it mattered much, anyways. And besides, how was he having no trouble? Maya had seen the bottoms of his boots earlier when he’d been draped over Hammerlock’s couch, and they had even less going for them in the ways of traction than her own shoes. Heavy, smooth steel wasn’t exactly the best for… anything, really. 

Now that she was thinking about it… were those boots even _ made _ for walking? That was certainly what they were doing, but they looked more like… something that a prisoner, or some kind of forced laborer would wear, built for protection, not… tromping around glaciers; the bottoms were worn nearly smooth from who knows how much use, and she highly doubted the metal had much grip on _ ice. _

The sound of Zer0’s footsteps behind her stopped, causing Maya to turn to see why. “Wait.” They said when they saw Maya looking back, flashing an exclamation point, then a smiley face. “More bandits.”

Maya was about to ask for clarification when they disappeared, followed immediately by the sound of a gunshot. Beside her, the snow poofed up as a bullet sailed past her. She whipped back around to see two or three fur-covered heads pop up around the base of the safehouse, and Krieg running directly towards them while Axton took shelter behind an upturned boat. 

Rushing forward, Maya joined Axton behind the boat, reloading her smg while the soldier snuck a look over the top and fired three shots. 

“Damn, and here I thought it’d be smooth sailing.” He grimaced, his back pressed against the frozen boat. "Oh, well, I'm always in the mood for some action!" The grimace shifted into a smirk. 

Having reloaded her smg, Maya peered over the boat just in time to see Krieg sink his axe into the chest of one of the bandits, then before he could yank it back out, turn and kick another off the stairs they stood upon down onto the ice. Maya took the opportunity to take aim and place a few electrified bullets in the bandit’s head. 

There were even less bandits at the safehouse than the harbor, and before Axton had time to aim, a glowing blade protruded from the chest of the last bandit. As the blade retracted, the bandit fell, dead, to reveal Zer0 flashing a “LOL n00b” as they slowly and dramatically sheathed their sword. 

Standing from their hiding spot, Maya and Axton joined the two. When they reached the stairs where Krieg was attempting to extricate his axe, Axton leaned into his echo. “Hey, Hammerlock, where’s this cache supposed to be at?” 

“You’ll need to take the elevator up. Do you see the generator? There should be a lever attached to it that will call it down.” Hammerlock’s voice responded. 

Krieg finally pulled his axe free from the bandit’s chest and kicked the body into the snow, then climbed the rest of the steps to allow the others up. 

Just as Hammerlock said, there was a lever covered in ice and snow. It took Axton several seconds of grunting to pull it back, only to be met with… nothing. The generator sparked and beeped, but the elevator didn’t budge.

“Of course, I forgot; the safehouse power box stopped working after Claptrap attempted to… integrate with it.” Hammerlock said with a sigh. 

Integrate…? Oh. It took Maya a moment to understand. She scrunched her nose in disgust at the thought. 

Axton looked over to the generator and hunched forward a bit, making a gagging noise. “Clappy, I understand, but what the _ hell _, man?” 

He _ understands? _ "Gross, dude, like for real." Maya was judging both of them at that point.

“Ah, what a kidder!” Claptrap’s shrill voice peeled out of her echo. “Just get a new fuse for the elevator, and ignore what he said about the power box.”

“Figures…” Maya said, shaking her head in disbelief. _Men. _She gestured to the others and started back down the steps. “So, any ideas where we can find a fuse?” She asked Hammerlock. 

The gentleman hmm’d over the frequency for a second. “Aha! There is a bandit encampment to the east, off in the cove, but the way is protected by an electrified fence. Perhaps you might be able to steal their fuse?” 

“To the east, huh?” At the bottom of the steps, Maya opened the local map on her echo to see if she could find the place. Thankfully, it only took a moment, and once she had her bearings, she was leading the others around the backside of the safehouse to cross the rest of the harbor. 

For the third time, the four hunters ended up rushing forward to combat a small group of fur-covered bandits lingering in front of a giant fence of thick, sparking wires. 

Was the fence really necessary? What could they possibly need to keep out of their camp so badly that they’d block the entrance to it?

When the last bandit lay dead, Maya approached the fence, and Claptrap’s voice shrieked in her ears again. “Ooh! There's a fuse on the other side of that electric fence. Just run through the fence; you won't take damage if you go fast enough!” 

“Claptrap, that’s not-” Maya started.

“That’s a HORRIBLE idea, Claptrap!” Gaige cut her off. What was she doing on the frequency? Had she nothing better to do? “You should totally try it, guys!”

Axton, who was squatting and rummaging around a box he’d found, snapped his head up to take a closer look at the fence. “Careful, kid, one of us might just try it.” He warned her, his eyes moving to side-eye Krieg, who was a few meters away tossing his axe into the air and watching it spin before catching it by the handle. 

Oh, that was a good point. None of them knew just how far his eccentric behavior extended, and Gaige and Claptrap encouraging them all to run into an electrified fence was _ not _a good way to find out.

Zer0 jumped down from the roof of a hut they’d been searching, landing next to Maya. “There are other ways/ To get to the other side/ I will just shoot it.” They said. Maya breathed a small sigh of relief, glad that at least one of them had any sense. 

Claptrap and Gaige whined over the echo as Zer0 took aim and shot the fence’s power box. 

Standing, Axton cautiously approached the fence, holding a hand out in front of him. He hesitated a moment when he got close, then rushed forward and gripped one of the thick wires, letting out a pained scream and jerking. Both Zer0 and Maya jumped in surprise, while Krieg turned his head to watch Axton, letting his axe fall to the ground instead of catching it. 

“Axton?!” Maya shouted, concerned. 

Releasing the wire, he hunched forward, his shoulders shaking. “Oh, christ! Nah, it’s all good.” He called over, turning towards her to show that he was in the process of laughing his ass off. Well, more like wheezing. “I’m just fuckin’ with you guys!” He said when he saw Maya’s expression.

Oh, that _ bastard! _

“How undignified/ Playing tricks on us like that/ I’m gonna hurt you.” Zer0’s helmet displayed a >:(. 

Rolling her eyes, Maya walked past Axton towards the fence, giving him a light shove. “You’re a dumbass, you know that?” 

Axton clicked his tongue at her as she squeezed between the wires. “Don’t you know it, sweetcheeks!”

On the other side of the fence, next to the power box, and the piece they needed, was a small lever to release the fence. Maya stashed the component in her storage deck and pulled the lever, causing the fence to tip and fall forward into the trampled snow. 

Casually strolling over the fallen fence, Axton looked around at the icy canyon beyond. “Wonder what that bandit camp Hammerlock mentioned is like. You think they got echonet connection out there?”

Maya stepped out from under the covered area where the power box was and followed Axton’s gaze down the canyon, then looked at him. “I don’t know. Gaige was able to use the echonet back at Claptrap’s, so I’d imagine so.”

“Wait, she was?” He seemed surprised.

“Yeah, it was when you were sleeping.”

“What could she possibly have needed to use the echonet for at that time?” He asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Krieg found some medicine for my concussion. Gaige had to look it up ‘cause none of us knew what it was.”

“...Oh.” Axton nodded slightly. “Well, that was… thoughtful… of him. But how did _ he _know what it was?”

Hmm… that was a good question. How _ did _he know what the medicine was? Had he gone out searching for it, or was it something he simply happened upon while burning rakks? That also begged the question of whether he knew he was bringing her that medicine in particular or if it was all just one great big coincidence. 

“I’m not sure…” Maya admitted. 

The relaxed look on Axton’s face quickly slipped away as he focused on something behind Maya, straightening and grabbing onto her shoulder. “_ Bullymongs!” _The soldier yelled right as Maya turned around to see an adult ‘mong sailing through the air towards her. 

Instinctively, Maya brought her arm up to phaselock it before it had a chance to land on her, effectively trapping it mid-flight. The second she was sure it was contained, she took a few hurried steps backwards and drew her smg. Axton took a few steps back himself and brought his gun up to help her aerate the floating primate. Several more bullymongs were lumbering towards them, and as Maya phaselocked a second ‘mong and opened fire on it, she heard the unmistakable sound of Krieg’s manic cackling growing closer and closer, until the big man leaped past her, his axe in hand. 

Her and Axton were careful to not shoot Krieg as they followed him down the canyon. Once they entered a part of the canyon that was wider than the rest, but dead-ended in front of a cave entrance, the two were able to shoot their own targets without worrying about hitting their overlarge companion. One bullymong in particular had almost managed to slip past Maya’s attention, and would’ve no doubt landed a heavy hit on her with its massive fists if its head hadn’t exploded two meters away from her. As it collapsed to her right, she looked up to her left briefly to see Zer0 scaling the canyon wall with their sniper, giving her a thumbs up. Maya gave them a sharp nod in response. 

If she was honest, the bullymongs were more of a challenge than the bandits; at least the ‘mongs had her and Axton actually running around as they desperately tried to dodge the debris thrown at them and the meaty, furry fists trying to pound them into puree, while the bandits were just dumb hicks with guns, mostly. 

When the last ‘mong fell dead, the four regrouped. 

“How you doin’ big guy? You take any hits?” Maya asked Krieg as she reloaded her gun. 

Krieg stared at her for several seconds before he shook his head no.

Maya breathed out through her mouth. “Good. What about you two? Axton? Zer0?”

Zer0 shook their head as well, while Axton mumbled “nah,” focused on reloading his own gun. 

Maya, herself, was pretty winded, but aside from a few stray blows to her shield, she was unharmed. 

She was about to head back through the canyon to the safehouse when Krieg made his way over to some of the… less bloody bullymong corpses and straightened one out along the ice, kneeling and digging through the fur with concentration. 

“Krieg, what are you…?” She started. The man didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her or the others, having fully engrossed himself with inspecting the bullymong body. After a few moments, Krieg wiped the blood off his axe, then brought it up to the bullymong and began to strip large swaths of fur from it, collecting it into a surprisingly neat pile next to him. 

Once he had amassed a small pile, Hammerlock’s voice crackled over their echoes. “Collecting bullymong fur, are you? I say, dear sir, if it’s not too much trouble, would you be willing to bring some extra back with you when you return? I would be glad to compensate you for your effort.”

Krieg stopped his ‘mong shaving and looked straight ahead, tilting his head like he was considering it. “What sweet meats do you have for me today, mustache man?” He hissed.

Hammerlock made a sound like he was about to answer, but was cut off by Claptrap. “Oooh! Are you collecting bullymong fur? I LOVE that stuff! It's soft, warm and really good at absorbing robot tears! Wouldja mind bringing some to me instead of that Hammerlock? I’ll give you a shotgun!”

“Oh, how brazen of you, Claptrap.” Maya said. “You know there’s plenty of bullymongs here, right? You don’t need to compete with Hammerlock over the fur.”

“She _ does _have a point, Claptrap.” Hammerlock told the robot. “Anyways, Krieg, you need not if you do not want to, but should you bring me some fur, I would be more than happy to offer you, or perhaps one of your companions, a rather dashing rifle.” And with that, the connection cut out. 

Behind her, Axton snickered and muttered. “What, give _ Krieg _ a sniper? Man doesn’t exactly seem to be on the patient _ or _attentive side, if you ask me.” 

Getting to his feet with more speed than Maya would have ever expected from a man of his… heft, Krieg rushed over to Axton and grabbed a fistfull of his uniform, which was quite a lot, considering the size of his hands, and lifted him slightly. He leaned forward and brought his masked face close to Axton’s, and although Maya couldn’t see, she would bet good money that he was glaring knives directly into the poster boy’s soul. A loud, low growl emanated from Krieg as Axton weakly lifted his palms and shrunk back like he was trying to sink into the snow to escape the situation he’d put himself in, his heels hovering just barely above the ground beneath him.

Perhaps Maya should have been worried, all things considered, concerned for Axton’s safety, but oddly enough… she wasn’t. Sure, she didn’t want her new companions to kill each other over petty squabbles, but she didn’t believe for a second that Krieg would actually harm him. At least not _ too _severely.

And even if he did, well… in her experience, men weren’t always the most level-headed when it came to personal insults, so it would hardly surprise her; as long as Axton was still mostly intact, they could still fix him afterwards.

True to her expectations, once the fear of a higher power had been struck into the core of Axton’s being by Krieg’s feral snarling, he shoved the soldier away from him, causing him to stumble backwards several feet before he regained his balance. Leaning against Zer0, Axton fixed his bunched up uniform and watched Krieg stalk back to the bullymong, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging slightly agape in shock.

“Now will you keep such/ Observations to yourself/ Around the others?” Zer0 asked him quietly. Axton pulled away from Zer0 to stand on his own, looking up at the assassin’s helmet, then back over to Krieg. 

Maya rolled her eyes again and walked over to where Krieg kneeled, leaning down with her hands on her knees so she was eye level with him. “Need any help, big guy?” 

He sat back on his heels and turned to look at her, his eye displaying severe annoyance. There was just enough space through the mask for Maya to see part of his eyebrow, which appeared to have dropped into a furrow, and a faint line cutting through the tired shadow underneath his eye. Of course, the angle at which she looked made him seem less annoyed and more like he was stressed out. 

“C’mon, ignore what that poster boy said and let me help. I doubt you’ll have enough arms to carry back enough fur for both Claptrap _ and _ Hammerlock along with your own.” Ok, so maybe he didn’t necessarily need _ any _arms to carry it, since Maya had given him her other echo, and by extension, a storage deck, but it was the thought that counted. She hoped. 

“What do you need this all for, anyways? You got yourself a project?”

Some of the annoyance began to fade, slowly replaced with perplexion. Moving himself so that he was sitting on the freshly shaved bullymong corpse, Krieg reached down and worked on removing one of his boots, which were both wrapped with a generous amount of musty, mangy fur. When he wriggled his bare foot out of the boot, he held up and stuck his hand into it, pulling out a wad a trampled, flat fur.

“Oh!” Maya exclaimed. “You don’t have any socks.”

Krieg nodded.

Maya squatted and hugged her knees close to her chest. “Hmm… That’s a smart decision, using animal fur. You know, one of the monks at the abbey absolutely refused to wear socks; he said they would bring about the heat death of the universe, somehow. Whenever he needed to go outside, he’d stuff his shoes full of unwashed jabber fur, but it would drive everyone up the wall because when he eventually took his shoes back off, he’d track the hair everywhere. Can you imagine? Eugh.” She screwed up her face and chuckled as she finished her story, hoping he’d at least find _ some _humor in it. 

“Anyways, he never _ did _explain how wearing socks would kill all life in the universe, but he was hard set in his ways, and he refused to let anyone tell him otherwise.” 

Looking up from the pile of fur to his face, the annoyance in Krieg’s eye had all but disappeared, replaced with… more of that perplexed look, but also a small hint of amusement. 

The edge of Maya’s mouth pulled up into a slight smile, equal parts amused, herself, at the memory of the ridiculous monk and relieved that she’d at least distracted Krieg enough for him to focus on something else. “Come on, let’s separate all this fur into piles, then we won’t have to worry about Claptrap and Hammerlock fighting over how much each of them gets.” The sooner they got out of the cold, the better.

Replacing the wad of smushed fur and pulling his boot back on, Krieg sat back on his knees in the snow, organizing the pile into three smaller bundles while Maya searched her storage deck for something to tie them up with. She was eventually able to find a pair of shoelaces off the pair she’d been wearing when she left Athenas and tied up two of the bundles while Krieg got the last one in order.

Maya looked over her shoulder at Axton and Zer0, who were standing side by side like they had been when she walked over to Krieg, Axton quietly telling something to Zer0. The soldier looked a bit shaken, still, his arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face as he watched the symbols over Zer0’s helmet change from a person shrugging to a great big LOL.

When she looked back over to Krieg, he was in the process of putting the fur into his own storage deck.

Standing, Maya waited for Krieg to finish and retrieve his axe, then looked back at the other two. “You guys ready to go?” She called over to them.

The two turned to her, then silently started making their way back, although Maya thought she could hear a disgruntled “yeah, yeah” from Axton as he walked.

Making sure Krieg was on his feet and ready, Maya joined the others. 

The walk back to the safehouse was tedious, taking far longer than when they left now that they weren’t in the heat of a firefight, not to mention _ quiet; _ Axton hadn’t said a word the entire walk, and the awkward energy he was putting off kept Maya a good distance away, lest she be infected.

Making her way up the stairs to the power box, she pulled the fuse from her storage and replaced the broken one, a task that took her a good bit of fidgeting, as she didn’t really know what she was doing. Once the fuse was secured, and the power box functioning, she pulled the lever to lower the elevator. 

She looked around while it descended, spotting Axton walking down to the end of the frozen pier and staring out over the ice to the frozen ocean, his hands in his pockets; Zer0 was seated on top of a box and looking through their echo, while Krieg, standing at the top of the stairs, was absently staring up at the sky.

The elevator shook as it settled at the bottom.

Maya rested her hand on the lever as she stepped onto the platform. “Krieg.” She called over, causing the man to startle and tense up, blinking in confusion for a moment before joining her. 

“You two head on up/ I have some business I must/ See at the moment.” Zer0 looked up from their echo, flashing a smiley face. 

Maya pulled the lever. As they ascended, she puzzled over their words.

What kind of “business” would that be? They weren’t really keen on talking about themselves, but not a lot of possibilities came to mind when she remembered the wanted poster with “political assassination” listed as the only crime. Zer0 acted like some sort of cool, mysterious loner, but who were they, really? What was underneath the mask, literally and figuratively? Were they actually an assassin, or just some kind of mercenary? They claimed to be highly skilled, one of, if not the, best at what they did, but Maya hadn’t a clue what is was they actually _ did, _if anything at all; testing one’s skills was all well and good, but was that all they wanted out of life, or was there a reason for it? Some hidden goal for them to achieve?

There were just as many questions surrounding Zer0 as Krieg, and although the two were on vastly different ends of the spectrum, whatever the spectrum actually _ was _, the nature of their enigmatic existences were surprisingly… similar.

With another series of concerning shakes, the elevator came to a stop, swaying slightly in the chilly wind. 

The door to the safehouse was frozen shut, and no matter how much she pushed, Maya was unable to get it open.

Stepping back from the door, she looked over to Krieg, who was still absently watching the sky. “Krieg?” Maya said. Like he had on the steps, he snapped to attention like a startled animal, tensing significantly as he whipped his head around to face her. 

“Can you help me get the door open? It’s frozen.”

Krieg swung his axe up and slung it through his harness, then motioned with a jerk of his head for Maya to move to the side. Standing back, she watched as he turned the handle and pressed a hand to the door, giving it a test push. The metal creaked and a few bits of ice dislodged themselves from the frame, but the door stayed. 

He backed up a step stared at it for a few more seconds before he put his shoulder against it, turned the handle again, then pulled back a bit and put a generous amount of force into shoving the door, which popped open with a sharp _ crack _. 

The inside of the safehouse was partially iced over in a few places, mostly around the doorframe and the escape hatch leading to the roof, but everything inside appeared undisturbed. In the corner was an old vending machine displaying a masked doctor’s face in the top corner and a beaten-up hypo syringe supporting itself with a crutch next to the doctor’s name, the words “Come get your fix today!” emblazoned at the bottom. Despite the power now running through the place, the vending machine remained inactive.

“”Dr. Zed,” huh?” Maya asked out loud as she inspected the old metal. “You think that’s some kinda pun or something?” She looked over her shoulder to Krieg, who watched her with mild interest. 

He shrugged. 

“Well, hopefully this broken machine wasn’t the shield cache Hammerlock was talking about, or else we might just have to bust the thing open.”

It didn’t take long, considering the safehouse itself wasn’t that big, for them to find a metal chest with the blocky Dahl logo across the top and a pile of shields inside. Krieg spent several tedious minutes sitting cross-legged on the floor trying to find the best one to use. Judging from the frustrated mumbling and occasional huffing, it was a bit of a struggle.

Maya couldn’t blame him, really, as the shields weren’t exactly high-quality, nor were they in the best condition. She took a seat in a chair near the counter and opened up her own echo while she waited, taking stock of what she’d accumulated during her short time on Pandora. 

There wasn’t much; she had the outfit she’d worn when she left Athenas and a few miscellaneous books, but the only items she’d picked up since then were a handful of shiny rocks veined with color. She had to admit, she wasn’t entirely sure why she’d kept the rocks, but there was something about the vibrancy of the colored veins spider-webbing along their smooth, milky surfaces that caught her eye, so into her storage they went.

Closing out her echo, Maya set and arm on the counter and rested her head in the palm of her hand, watching as Krieg held a shield in either hand and stared intently at the information displayed on his echo’s screen. Eventually, after much grumbling, he decided on which of the two he wanted. Krieg closed his own echo and set one of the shields back into the chest and stood, awkwardly fumbling as he hooked the shield to the back right side of his belt.

With a shield finally secured, they made their way back down to where Zer0 still sat, now joined by Axton, who leaned against the metal siding lining the ice with his thumbs looped through his belt and feet crossed in front of him. 

“You find one?” The soldier asked.

Maya gave a short nod. “Yeah, let’s get back to the others.”

The walk back to Hammerlock’s little abode was also gruelingly slow and quiet, but at least Axton seemed to have gotten over the awkwardness he’d had on the way from the bullymongs. The slope up to the town was particularly trying, as the packed snow made it feel more like a climb than a leisurely stroll.

Glad to be back in the warmth of the house, Maya sighed with relief and cut off of the energy running through her arm. Oh, boy, sure, it didn’t take _ that _much out of her do it, but the need to keep it up constantly while out in the cold really put a drain on her after a while. If she could find a quick change station, or maybe just a spare jacket, she would be eternally grateful to the powers that be, whoever or whatever they were. Axton, himself, had pulled his sleeves down and donned a pair of gloves, and Krieg’s skin was looking a little red from the exposure.

At least she wasn’t the only one suffering. 

Gaige was on the couch with Deathtrap on the floor in front of her, cursing under her breath as she tinkered with him. When she heard the four of them shuffle into the house, she stopped and leaned over the back of the couch to watch them stomp the snow off their shoes.

“You guys have any luck?” She asked, her arm dangling over the edge with a greasy wrench in hand.

Maya looked over to her as she shut the door behind her. “Yes. It’s not the best, but it’ll do for now. I hope.”

“And what exactly are _ you _ up to now, you little punk?” Axton pulled his gloves off and was strolling over to the couch, eyeing Deathtrap with look of mock suspicion as he raised a cautious hand to touch the robot.

“Hey!” Gaige slapped his hand away. “I’m not done recalibrating him yet, so unless you wanna get your own arm chopped off, hands off!”

“By him?”

“By me!”

“Where’s Sal and Hammerlock?” Maya interrupted. As much as she would have loved to watch them squabble, they needed to figure out a way to get Claptrap’s boat back from Captain Flynt before the bandit king retaliated, and she'd feel better if they got it done sooner rather than later.

Gaige pointed to the stairwell in the corner. “They’re downstairs going through all the shit in the basement.”

“And Claptrap?”

“I dunno, outside somewhere?”

With a word of thanks to Gaige, Maya made her way down to the basement, where she found the men she was looking for casually standing around in a corner lined with boxes of bottles, loudly and mirthfully bantering as they each held a brown glass bottle. Salvador did a double take when he saw her approaching, then held an arm out towards her and grinned wildly. “Ah ha! There she is! Come, hermana, you have _ got _to try some of this!”

“Er… what is _ this, _ exactly?” Maya was no stranger to alcohol, the monks weren’t exactly sticklers on that front, surprisingly, but she had a rule to always be wary when someone, especially a man, offered her a drink without clarifying what it was. 

Turning away, Salvador reached down to pull a bottle out of one of the open boxes on the cold floor. “Ah, don’t worry too much, it’s just rakk ale. Not even that strong, but it _ is _good!” He held the bottle out, and after a second’s hesitation, she accepted it and turned it in her hand to read the homemade label.

“Uh, Sal…? The alcohol content on this is 19%.”

“Yeah? And?” 

“It’s… nevermind, it’s nothing.” Judging by his confused reaction to her observation, he was probably under the impression that that was a low percentage for an ale. Unless Pandoran drinks were just stronger by nature of being Pandoran? 

Twisting the lid off, Maya took a cautious sniff, then a generous swig, shaking her head and screwing up her face at the unexpected taste. It was… not like the ale the monks brewed, that was for sure. “Oh… that’s definitely… something.” She told the short man.

“Yes, Pandoran drinks do take a bit of time to become accustomed to.” Hammerlock said, nursing his own bottle. “I take it you were successful in your endeavor to acquire a shield for your large companion?”

Maya recapped the rakk ale and held it down at her side. “Yes. As you noticed earlier, we had a bit of a detour, but Krieg was able to get himself something decent.”

“Ah, protection from the bullets, ho!” He chuckled.

“Speak of the devil!” Salvador leaned around Maya to look behind her. A moment later, Zer0 and Krieg joined the three of them in what was quickly becoming a circular gathering. Zer0 stopped by Maya’s left, while Krieg stopped by her right, throwing her a cursory glance before eyeing Hammerlock. 

Like he had with Maya, Salvador was quick to suggest the two arrivals try the rakk ale. Zer0 politely declined, while Krieg tilted his head and made a whining noise that almost could’ve been a thoughtful “hmm”. 

“You want to try mine?” Maya held her bottle up towards him, wanting to pawn it off as soon as she could so she didn’t have to feel obligated to finish the damned thing. Oh sure, under normal circumstances she would have no problem downing it, but while they were stranded on a glacier was not the time, not when she needed to be level-headed.

Hammerlock raised a curious eyebrow when Krieg accepted the drink from her. Like when they’d eaten earlier, he only pushed his mask up just enough to take a sip, and then knocked it back and killed it in a few gulps, causing Salvador to let out a hearty laugh. 

Maya was mildly concerned about the potential consequences of someone like him drinking. Hopefully if he ever got too far, they’d be able to deal with… whatever trouble he was like to cause. She didn’t like it, but she was prepared to phaselock him if she had to. 

She watched his throat work as he finished the drink, trying to get a better look at what little of his jaw she could see during the few moments it was exposed; like the dining room, the basement was just too dim to see much of anything. Too bad. 

Once again, Hammerlock seemed disappointed. “...So, were you able to collect any bullymong fur, my large, intimidating friend?” He asked as Krieg pulled his mask back down. 

Grunting, Krieg set the now empty bottle on the floor and retrieved one of the bundles of fur from his storage, handing it off to the other man.

“Ah, splendid! This is a rather excellent sample, a trillion thanks! Here, as promised, your payment.” Hammerlock stepped forward to pay him. “Now, my offer for the rifle still stands, if you, or one of or your companions, would find a use for such a thing.”

Krieg watched him. “Show me the bloody boy.”

“Now, I’m sure it’s probably not what you are used to, what with your unique method of fighting, but it _ is _a rather good gun, if I do say so myself.” As he spoke, Hammerlock rummaged through his own storage and retrieved a very worn, yet still handsome rifle and offered it to Krieg. It was Jakobs, if the polished wood was any indicator, covered in scuffs and scratches, but still well cared-for.

Taking the rifle, Krieg turned it over in his hands and took stock of it with the same deft, practiced movements as when he got his echo, his visible eye focused as he pointed it away from the others and looked down the scope.

Next to her, Zer0 crossed their arms and watched with what Maya was hoping was curiosity, while Salvador guzzled down the last of his ale and bent down to grab another. 

“I do not mean to/ Repeat Axton’s insult from/ Earlier, Krieg, but/ Are you not more suited for/ Closer-ranged combat?” They asked, flashing a question mark and tapping their helmet with a finger. 

Staring at their unreadable masked head, the exhaustion in Krieg's eye had only continued to grow to the point that he now looked nearly murderous. His response consisted of him opening the chamber and reloading it without taking his gaze off Zer0. Where did he get the ammo to reload it? Did Maya _really_ forget to empty the storage before giving it to him?

"Wouldn't you like to know, knife-arms." He growled. As Zer0 displayed an exclamation point and a disgruntled shrugging emoji, Krieg turned his attention back to Hammerlock, nodding his approval and depositing the gun into his storage. "A pungent little killer fur der Krieger." 

There was that weird language again! What was it? Maya hadn't yet found the time to ask him or Gaige, nor look it up, but she was steadily becoming more and more interested in knowing what it was; maybe, if the vault hunters could find out what language it was and where it was spoken, they might learn something about the man himself. 

But what was that word he kept saying? According to Gaige, he said his name was Krieg, but was that actually a name or just a random word he'd used to describe himself? Did he actually introduce himself as that earlier, or was the teenager's translation inaccurate? Gaige had told Maya that she only just barely understood him, and what little she knew was from years of listen to some kind of music she called "noy-uh doich hay-uh-ta," whatever that meant. Whatever it was, this "creeguh" thing he'd said once again must have been a variation of whatever the word, or name, was, but what was the significance? "Foo-uh dey-uh creeguh." What did it mean? What _ was _"krieg?"

Just who was he, really?

Maya's thoughts were interrupted by a loud "ah!" from Hammerlock.

"So you speak German, do you, Krieg? Are you, yourself, of German descent, or do you simply speak it? Of course, I suppose I should have expected as much from someone who goes by "Krieg," of all things, no offense intended." The mustachioed man had completely abandoned his studious look and now looked purely curious, like a little kid that discovered a new kind of bug. "I, myself, am hardly fluent enough to understand much, but I recognize that ancient lexicon when I hear it!"

German? Was that what it was called? Maya had never heard of it.

Krieg startled slightly at the sudden onslaught of questions. As Hammerlock continued to ramble on in his scholarly manner, all four of the vault hunters stared at him with a combined mix of shock, confusion, intrigue, and boredom.

"I had heard that there were only a handful of places in the six galaxies besides Old Earth that still spoke it, and even fewer that teach it, certainly you must have learnt it from one of th-"

"Hammerlock, with all due respect, I don't think now is really the time to pick his brain about whatever language he does or doesn't speak." Maya had to cut him off, or else they'd stand there until the glaciers around them melted. Her close proximity to Krieg allowed her a prime opportunity to feel the sudden waves of warmth rolling off of him, not as intense as before, but definitely noticable. If it was like what happened with Handsome Jack, then perhaps it was better to simply avoid anything that might cause that particular reaction; until they understood it better, at least.

Hammerlock was taken aback by her words, but realization quickly dawned on him. "Ah, my apologies, my friends. The scholar in me simply hungers for knowledge, but you are right, this is not the time or place for such topics of conversation."

Beside her, the heat died down, but Krieg remained more tense than before.

"Anyways," Maya started, "I think we ought to figure out how we're gonna get that boat from Flynt so we can get back to the mainland." 

"An excellent point/ As we do not yet know where/ The ship itself is." Zer0 went back to tapping their helmet.

Raising his ale into the air, Salvador let out a loud laugh. "HA! I say we charge in guns blazing and take those putas out! Nothing says you mean business like taking out an entire clan of bandits and their king!" He took a long drink from the bottle, then turned and threw it against the ice-covered wall some three meters to his left. Maya watched as it shattered, raining glass and spare drops of ale onto the floor and nearby crates.

"_ YES! _ It's a baptism of blood that will lift us from PURGATORY into a fleshy _ REBIRTH! _" Well, at least Krieg was on board with that idea, unsurprisingly. Maya had started to become accustomed to his quietness that she startled a bit when he began shouting, although Salvador was overjoyed at his loud enthusiasm and fist-bumped the man, shouting his own agreements. 

"Ummm are you… sure… about that?" Maya asked, skeptical at the vague and reckless nature of Sal's "plan." Sure, she loved the excitement of battle as much as anyone, but taking on an entire clan? Not a great idea.

Hammerlock took a sip from his ale. "I must agree with the lady on this; while I am certain the five of you are quite capable, Flynt's men are a bit, ah… unhinged due to their isolation and time out on the glacier. They are no doubt running on the fringe for supplies, but they make up for it with vigor to spare."

A sly-looking emoji appeared in front of Zer0's helmet. "Promise?"

"Ok, ok, let's try it this way," Maya held up a hand. "Let's get everyone together upstairs and see if Claptrap knows where the ship is, then we can figure out the best course of action from there. Sound good?"

The four of them looked at her for a moment; Hammerlock was attempting to hide a degree of admiration, while Salvador ran his fingers through his beard like he was considering it and Zer0 displayed a thumbs up. Krieg's eye was nearly unreadable, but she hoped that his silent, unblinking stare was one of agreement, as she would prefer to avoid arguing with _ men _ as much as possible. 

"I couldn't agree more, Maya. Come! Let us all ascend to the dining hall for a good old-fashioned war meeting." Hammerlock nodded and gestured to the stairwell with his prosthetic arm. 

Maya was the first to turn and head back up, and the others followed.


	11. Born Into Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The vault hunters set off in the hopes of finding Claptrap's ship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I had so much trouble with this chapter, sorry about the wait

As much as Krieg wanted to help the others and get off the glacier, he wanted some sleep even more. He hadn’t slept since the restless night in the town full of dead bandits, so he was running on a few choppy hours of sleep that had long since passed their expiration date, and he was starting to sympathize with the other guy’s sour mood. 

First Axton decided to try his luck with his snide comment, then Zer0 had to repeat the damned thing, not to mention Sir Hammerlock’s rapt curiosity and Maya’s side-eyeing, all mixed with the other guy’s disgruntlement and their exhaustion, it baffled Krieg that the other guy hadn’t lashed out in any significant way. 

He sat in a corner of the dining room, his back to the wall as he leaned his head against the peeling wallpaper and rested his bandaged arm on a raised knee. Everyone else, including Claptrap, sat at the table, engrossed in a debate over their plan of attack. There hadn’t been enough chairs at the table for everyone to sit, leaving Krieg standing awkwardly by the door as they all settled and began their discussion. 

Sure, the other guy had been fine with not sitting with them, but with their mood steadily heading south, it was difficult for Krieg to not feel a little miffed at their lack of consideration. 

Regardless, he tried his best to listen to them while the other guy fidgeted, picking and pawing at the exposed skin on his arms and torso.

There wasn’t much progress being made in their “strategy meeting,” as Axton put it, so much as bickering over who got to lead, who got to do what, who would be the one to kill Flynt, yada yada and so forth, boasting their supposed “skills” to defend their claims. The longer it went on, the more Krieg became aware of a migraine slowly building, accompanied by a voice hissing in his ear.

** _Gnillik pots reven. _ **

Whatever that meant. 

Once Claptrap decided to join in what was becoming a full-fledged argument between Axton, Salvador, and Gaige, although about what, he couldn’t say, neither he nor the other guy could bear to listen to it any longer. Standing, he yanked the door open and strode into the kitchen, pulling the door shut behind him with a frustrated huff. He could still hear the vault hunters through the wall, though the tone seemed to have changed. 

_ Haven’t any of these fools ever worked with other people before? _

The other guy stared blankly at the wall opposite him and took a few deep breaths.

_ You know, while we’re in here… _

Although it had only been, what, two, three hours or so since they’d had dinner/breakfast/food, apparently that was just enough time for his stomach to start up its clawing again. 

The other guy walked over to the sink and turned the faucet on. Krieg was expecting any water to emerge to be sludgy and bad, if there was any at all, but it was surprisingly clear. He looked through the cupboards until he found a cup, then filled it and pulled the mask to the side. It was probably the cleanest water he’d found in the months he’d been free. Sir Hammerlock must have put in a filtration system when he arrived, or at least fixed one that was already in place. 

Krieg gulped it down, and then another two cup-fulls, like his life depended on it, which it probably did, all things considered. 

How was he even still alive? It wasn’t the first time he pondered that question, and he highly doubted it would be the last, but between the vague memories of torture and the blur that was his trans-Pandora hiking trip, he should’ve died a thousand times over, yet there he was, still standing despite everything.

Lowering the empty cup, Krieg found himself studying the simple, yet eye-catching and elegant, design in the glass. There was something familiar in the way the way the colored tendrils snaked their way down from the rim to the base, swirling and curling around themselves. Why was it so familiar? Was it the cup itself, the color, or the design? Maybe it was nothing. 

** _Ocihc, ereht tog uoy soottat gnitseretni. _ **

What was that?

The other guy put the cup on the counter and walked over to the fridge. 

Inside, he found the plated remains of… something; it wasn’t from earlier, that much he was sure of, but it was coagulated and mixed to the point where he couldn’t separate any individual ingredients. Whatever, it could hardly be worse than the charred rakks the other guy insisted on crunching down earlier. With the plate in hand, he rifled through the drawers until he found a fork, then leaned against the counter and shoveled whatever was on the plate into his mouth, too tired to even register the taste beyond _ salty. _

A loud shout from behind the door to the dining room made him pause and look up. All previous signs of debate ceased, the silence of the house broken only by the muffled sound of Maya shouting indistinctly. 

_ She must have gotten tired of listening to them and snapped. Not that I blame her. _

The other guy stared at the door for another second, then grunted in response and continued eating. 

Too soon, the mysterious contents of the plate were gone. Krieg almost felt bad about him and the other vault hunters just showing up and eating Sir Hammerlock’s food, even though the man assured them it was fine, that there was far too much for one person. 

The dining room went quiet. A moment later, the door opened, and the vault hunters, Claptrap, and Sir Hammerlock filed out through the kitchen into the other room, none of them bothering to glance over at Krieg, who tried to avoid moving and drawing attention to himself. 

_ Why don’t you want anyone seeing our face? _

He didn’t respond. 

As Salvador, the last person out, shut the dining room door behind him, the other guy reached over to set the plate in the sink and replaced the mask. The noise alerted the short man to his presence, whipping around to face Krieg like he wasn’t expecting him to be there. 

“Hey! I was wondering where you’d gone!” Salvador brightened immediately once he realized it was just him. “I don’t blame ya for leavin’, I’m not a strategy man, either. Well, I _ am _a strategy man, but only if it involves charging in headfirst!”

Krieg would have sighed if he could.

_ Ah, come on, man, we’re not exactly fit for conversation at the moment. Or ever. _

“You didn’t happen to hear what the final decision was, did you?”

The other guy shook his head and braced the heels of his hands against the edge of the counter.

“Thought not.” Salvador walked over to the fridge and pulled one of the rakk ales from the basement out of the door, leaning against his own counter as he uncapped it. “So, basically, that puta Flynt has Clappy’s ship waaay up at the tippy top of his camp, and the only way to it is to fight our goddamned way up!” He raised the bottle up as if to demonstrate the act of ascending, then took a long drink.

“Ahh, that’s the stuff… Anyways, we’ve got 12 hourse to rest up and prepare, then we can go show those bandit bastards how _ real _men fight, eh, amigo?” Salvador smirked and waggled his eyebrows at him, but didn’t seem to notice when Krieg failed to react in any way. At least, if he did, he didn’t care. 

“According to Hamhock, there’s a couple beds upstairs, and he said the other houses ought to be unlocked, if you want some privacy.” He took another long drink. “By the way, what were you doin’ just hangin’ out in here by yourself?” 

“...Fuel for the fire.” The other guy growled, crossing his arms.

Salvador nodded, a surprising amount of understanding and sympathy in his eyes. “I gotcha. It’s rough as fuck out here, ain’t it? Makes me miss the hot canyons around Ovejas.” A wistful look crossed his face, like he was lost in a memory. “You got a place to call home, Krieg?”

Again with that question. Didn’t he hear the first time Sir Hammerlock had asked?! Actually, no, he _ wouldn’t _ have _ , _ none of them could hear what Krieg was saying inside his head, and it only served to frustrate him even more. Just like the last time, he saw a faint image of that old house, only this time it was different, somehow. Less… dead. Krieg still couldn’t see inside the building, but in the… memory? Was that what is was? He had the feeling of safety, of comfort and belonging. It felt like a home. 

But where was it? 

Just as soon, it was gone again, smothered by the big guy’s imposing presence, and the feeling fluttered into mild confusion at what he had just witnessed. 

Had he even seen anything to begin with?

The other guy shook his head. 

Salvador let a heavy breath out through his nose, the kind expression never leaving his face. “That’s ok. We’ll find you a new home, wherever it may be, just you wait!” Something in Krieg’s exposed eye must have revealed something to the short man, because he stood fully and gave him a determined look. “We are a team now, hermano! Una familia! I don’t know about the others, but where _ I _ come from, you look out for your family!”

_ Oh… I… tell him “thank you.” Just this once. _

The other guy said nothing.

_ Please. _

A wave of irritation from the other guy hit him, but he returned Salvador’s gaze and nodded once.

The bright glint returned to Salvador’s eyes at the other guy’s response. “Yes!” Turning back to the fridge, he pulled another ale out and offered it to Krieg.

The other guy stared at the outstretched hand, glanced up at his face, then back down at the drink. For a moment, Krieg thought he would ignore him and walk away, but to his surprise, he reached his braced hand out and accepted it. Salvador grinned wildly as Krieg uncapped the bottle, holding his own up. “To family.”

Raising the bottle to clink it against Salvador’s, the other guy eased up slightly on the glare and took a drink. 

_ Maybe this guy isn’t so bad, after all. _

* * *

12 hours. Krieg had 12 hours to himself to waste before they commenced their damn-near suicidal mission to get Claptrap’s boat. The big guy was about as giddy at the thought as he could get, and Krieg himself was looking forward to finally getting off the glacier. 

Just as Salvador told him, the few homes in Liar’s Berg that weren’t buried in snow were unlocked, although only two had the power to heat them. The beds upstairs he’d mentioned turned out to be two singles that Sir Hammerlock pushed together to create one large bed, which he gladly offered to the vault hunters, but they all unanimously decided to politely decline.

Zer0 claimed that they didn’t need a place to sleep, which was weird, and Gaige was content to pass out on the couch in front of the fireplace, while the remaining three and Krieg all wanted their own place to lie down. 

When they inspected the state of the two homes, they discovered that each contained two separate bedrooms, allowing each their own temporary lodging. 

Gathered in the kitchen, there was much debate between the four over whom would share which house with whom; well, the other three debated while Krieg stood and nursed the ale Salvador had given him. Of course, Axton had insisted on trying one himself, which led to Salvador leading them all into another toast, this one dedicated to kicking Flynt’s ass.

After his little scare at the hands of the big guy, Axton was adamant in his refusal to share with Krieg, even if they were only sharing the house and not rooms. Maya, on the other hand, claimed she needed some peace and quiet, which she doubted any of the men would be able to afford.

God, he was so tired. At that point, he didn’t care who he got stuck with, as long as he was able to pass the fuck out.

Salvador voiced his indifference, as well, and so it was decided that Axton would share with Salvador, as Maya claimed his very existence was noisy, and she would share with Krieg. Her reasoning for picking Krieg over Salvador was simple: he hadn’t bothered her a bit during her nap, which was more than Axton’s mumbling could say, and she didn’t care to find out the hard way how Salvador slept. The short man responded by laughing and slapping her on the shoulder, not even bothering to deny it.

Maya’s reasoning would have been reassuring if Krieg had actually been asleep during those few hours instead of staring at the ceiling while some half-forgotten tune rattled around his skull.

_ Well, hopefully we don’t sleep _ too _ loudly, if we can manage it at all. _

Krieg frowned. He was starting to have doubts, and with the knowledge that he would be sharing with _ Maya _sinking in, the doubts turned to anxiety. 

What if he talked in his sleep? What if he snored? What if he tossed and turned and made a ruckus? What if, what if, what if! So many questions, but he had no answers; he didn’t know. 

What if he woke up from one of his nightmares thinking she was one of _ them _and attacked her?

He tried to put the thought out of his mind before he could overthink it. 

_ It’ll be fine. We’ll get some sleep, fill the tank up, and then go kill Flynt and get out of here. No problem. _

Was it, though? Things never turned out to be that easy. 

Crackling from his echo alerted him to an incoming message. 

“You guys done bitching in there? I can hear you all the way outside!” It was Gaige. She’d been outside doing who knew what ever since the meeting in the dining room. 

Axton leaned into his shoulder. “So turn your echo off, then, and you won’t have to listen to us.” 

“Yeah, I _ could, _but I’m getting bored as hell out here.”

“So what do you want _ us _to do about it, eh?” Salvador asked her, looking amused.

"_Well," _Gaige started with a huff "I thought you guys might like to know that I found a QCS over in someone's garage." 

A quick change station? Out there? That seemed unlikely at best, and sketchy as hell at worst.

"Oh, really? And I suppose it even works, too." Axton scoffed. 

_ Come on, dude, we're all tired, but don't be such a prick about it. _

Gaige made a frustrated grunting noise at his quip. "I'll have you know, it _ does, _ in fact, work, because I _ fixed _it. Anyways, do you guys wanna come check it out before you crash out?" 

"Oh, yeah, I, uh, I probably should, huh." Maya said. 

Right. She was most likely freezing every time she stepped outside, what with her exposed skin and the thin fabric of… whatever kind of shirt she had on. Did her shield help insulate her? 

Salvador looked like he could use a jacket, as well; the man might be a bit of a bear, but he couldn’t survive like one. Probably.

In fact, all of them, aside from himself and Zer0, it seemed, could use a few extra layers. Was Zer0 some kind of robot or something? They didn’t move like one, so maybe an alien? 

_ And I think _ we’re _ a mystery… we haven’t got shit on this guy. _

If they even were a guy.

The four of them kept on talking while Krieg’s eyes drooped closed and the grip on his ale loosened, their voices melding all into one streamlined white noise. His head tilted to the side, and everything was about to fade to black when something snapped him back to consciousness.

“Krieg!” 

Straightening, he blinked in confusion and looked around, his eye finally settling on Maya standing in the door to the entryway, her right arm holding it open. 

“You coming?”

The other guy set the half-empty ale on the counter and followed her through the door, then out of the building to catch up with Axton and Salvador. 

The quick change station was, indeed, hidden in a garage, tucked away in an iced over section of Liar’s Berg; it was a wonder that Gaige had even managed to find it in the first place. 

Gaige, herself, was standing in front of it when they arrived, ducking under the rusted garage door into a small room to find her flicking through something on the screen. 

“Holy shit, it actually _ does _work!” Axton sounded genuinely shocked.

Gaige turned to face them. “Well, _ yeah, _I told you guys I fixed it.”

Axton sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, yeah, I guess you did.” If his intention was to apologize, he’d have to step his game up a bit. Gaige rolled her eyes at him, but she let it go and stepped aside so the others could check out the QCS. 

Like he had during the meeting, the other guy leaned against the wall to his left and slid down until he sat on the freezing concrete and his arms rested on his knees. He set his head back against the wall and tilted it enough to watch the others out of his half-closed eye. Krieg vaguely wondered what the big guy was thinking, what his reasoning for his actions were, but he knew he’d never get a direct answer from him, and he didn’t want to put in the effort to try and decode what few fleeting scraps he could sense from the other guy’s portion of his brain. 

If he weren’t on the cusp of passing out, Krieg probably would’ve raised a metaphorical eyebrow at the lack of manic energy that usually flowed through his burning veins, snapping off on the ends of his nerves and sending the other guy into fits of fidgeting every time he stopped moving for more than a few minutes. Maybe it was just the cold… 

_ Or the exhaustion, more like. _

At some point, Zer0 joined them, even though Krieg wasn’t entirely sure when; one moment they weren’t there, and then suddenly they were, like they had been there the whole time. 

The five appeared to be having a whale of a time as they watched each other go through their QCS profiles, digging through the clothing and cosmetics each of them had saved. 

Gaige, who was already logged in when they arrived, settled on a pair of baggy jeans and a warm-looking, yet slightly too large black zip-up hoodie with the words “IN BLOOD WE TRUST” scrawled down the back.

_ “In blood we trust?” That sounds familiar. _

Where had he heard that before?

Axton was next, and after the others had their fun swiping through his vast array of seemingly random, yet generic, outfits, he added a fur-lined hood to his jacket; he retrieved a pair of goggles and a bandana, as well, which he shoved into one of the pockets on his jacket. 

Maya had her own, rather stylish, blue jacket to don. Axton and Gaige teased her for all of the clothing in her QCS account being high-quality and expensive, which she defended her ownership of by claiming most of them consisted of gifts from the monks of the Order and various citizens of Athenas. She swapped her shoes out for a pair of sturdy boots and pulled on a fuzzy gray beanie cap. 

Salvador, like Maya, donned a beanie of his own, effectively squashing his spiked hair down, leading to a little tuft of it sticking out the front. Gaige spent a good minute or so poking and teasing him for it before he finally relented and pushed the tuft under the hat. Once that ordeal was over with, the short man said something about anything warm he owned being back at his home in Ovejas, complaining as he added a dark long-sleeved shirt underneath the one he wore. 

Much to Krieg’s, and apparently everyone else’s, surprise, Zer0 had their own array of… options in their account. Unfortunately for the others - Gaige looked visibly disappointed - they were unable to see what the masked assassin looked like under their armor. In any case, the cosmetics they had consisted entirely of different helmets and… a single blue and white striped swimsuit, for some reason. They didn’t change their helmet, although they did, somehow, swap the color of their suit from dark gray to white. 

_ Smart… now they’ll be even more of a pain in the ass to keep track of. _

Once Zer0 logged out of their account, the others turned like they were about to leave, but stopped when they saw Krieg.

“OH! Hey, Krieg, you’ve got a QCS account, right?” Gaige asked him, her eyes going wide with excitement.

_ I’m not sure, actually. _

“Yeah, you could use a little more than just a shirt out here.” Salvador raised an arm and beckoned Krieg to step forward. 

_ I mean, we absolutely _ can _ go without a shirt out here, but it’s not like you would know that. How could you? _

The big guy stood and lumbered over to the screen, the vault hunters moving to give him room. Once he was in front of it, he reached out to press a button on the side, causing the QCS to scan him for an account.

Instead of the usual menu that followed a person scanning themselves to log in, he was met with a bright yellow box with the words “ACCOUNT LOCKED” emblazoned inside in bold lettering.

Krieg blinked in surprise. 

_ What in the hell? _

Behind him, the vault hunters all went quiet.

After several seconds of stunned silence, Gaige was the first to speak up. “What the fuck?” She moved forward to stand on Krieg’s right.

“Huh. How the hell does someone lock their own account?” Salvador asked.

“I wasn’t even aware you _ could _lock your account on these things.” Maya said, sounding as confused as Krieg felt. 

Gaige reached her hand up to tap at the screen, and the other guy stepped back from it to give her some room. 

They all watched in silence as the teen opened up a search engine on her echo, flicking through the various pages on the echonet that popped up when she typed in “locked out of my QCS account” and going through the settings on the machine while she read. 

She hmm’d after a few minutes of unsuccessfully attempting to remove the lock. “Well, I’m not really sure how you managed to do it, Krieg, but your account is completely inaccessible. C’mere, I think I might know how to unlock it, though.” 

Standing in front of the QCS, Krieg scanned himself again to log in, and was met with the same message. Gaige directed him to select a button on the screen that led him to a different screen asking for a series of codes to be entered in order to unlock it, the Hyperion logo displayed underneath. 

Salvador’s voice piped up behind him. “I thought these were made by Anshin?”

“They are, but I have no idea how, or even _ why, _Hyperion would want to lock Krieg’s QCS account, of all people.” Gaige said.“No offense, dude.”

_ None taken. Although, I think I could take a guess or two as to why they’d do it. _

“Could have something to/ Do with this wanted poster/ I found earlier.” Zer0 stepped up to Krieg’s left and pulled a folded yellow page from one of their pockets, handing it to him. 

Unfolding the paper, Krieg was met with the sight of his own mask staring back at him.

_ When did they… Why? _

The question was rhetorical, of course; Krieg knew exactly why they wanted him, knew why they considered him “property of Hyperion,” as the poster read, but despite that, or maybe even because of the knowledge, the fiery anger he’d felt earlier during the petty squabble about Jack returned tenfold. The fire rushed through his veins and left him feeling like he was on the verge of a rage-induced dissociative episode, just one step or stray word away from leaving his physical body behind.

Someone was speaking, and when he didn’t respond, a hand reached around him and grabbed the paper from his hands. Krieg would have cared, should have cared, but he was too busy staring into nothing.

“_ Property of Hyperion.” _

** _DNE TSUM YEHT, stsitneics eht. _ **

The voices were coming in louder this time, overtaking the headspace he’d been using to do… anything, really, spreading the flames until there was nothing but anger and pain and the other guy’s thirst for murder. 

** _Ecitsuj si siht._ **

A hand on his shoulder brought him rushing back into clarity, but caused him to flinch away at the unwanted contact. He turned, expecting to feel the sharp stab of a needle following any second, but was met with the concerned faces of the vault hunters.

One of them asked him a question, but he couldn’t comprehend it with through the sound of blood rushing in his ears and his heart thundering in his chest. 

“Are you alright?” It wasn’t the same question, or the same asker, but Zer0 flashed a :( and a question mark when they said it. Were they feeling guilty? Why? 

His fingers itched to hit something. 

The other guy grunted and shoved his way past the others, ducking as he went under the door and out the garage. Someone called out to him, he could hear them running up behind him, and when a hand roughly grabbed his bandaged forearm, the other guy snarled and tore away from the contact, refusing to look back.

As he walked through the town, the chill in the air sapped at the fire that had started to build up under his skin, leeching the heat until he was left with only a hollow feeling. He didn’t stop moving, just kept on going until he reached the abandoned house he was supposed to be staying in for the… well, it wouldn’t really be the night, would it? 

Turning the handle, Krieg tried to make sense of the poster and stepped through the door. “Property of Hyperion”... he didn’t belong to anybody, not even himself; he would rather die than go back. 

Why did Zer0 have it? 

It didn’t take long to find the bedrooms. Closing the door to one of the rooms and locking it behind him, the other guy pulled the curtains shut and turned to unceremoniously drop himself onto the bed, slowly and clumsily pulling his boots and equipment off and set them aside. 

Could he really trust the vault hunters to not attempt to turn him in the second they got the chance? 

_ Keep your paranoia to yourself, I’ll have none of it. _

The movements felt empty, devoid of sensation in the wake of the anger the other guy struggled to nurse into a frenzy, although Krieg would be damned if he had to stay awake any longer. He was done. He just wanted to stop existing. 

The bed itself wasn’t much, just a mattress on an old frame with a single pillow and a blanket, but it was far nicer than anything he’d seen on Pandora thus far, that was for damn sure. 

He unwrapped the bandaging and brace from his arms and set them on the end table to the side of the bed, then pulled the mask off and set it on top of the bandaging. Krieg stood again and removed the harness, dropping it to the floor, then stretched his arms out to his sides and over his head, scratching at the scarring on his forearm and yawning as he pulled the blanket back and crawled under the covers. 

Resting on his right side, the other guy sighed and closed his eyes. Oh, christ, did it feel good to finally lay down somewhere actually meant for sleeping. A few aches rose as he relaxed into the admittedly boxy mattress, but when compared to a skag den, it was heaven. 

_ There… we just need some sleep, is all. We’ll feel better once we do. Maybe when we wake up, we’ll have an easier time dealing with… everything. We can deal with the Hyperion shit later. _

A few of the voices still clawed at the back of his head as he tried to put the wanted poster out of his mind, hissing and whispering nonsensical things into his ears as darkness swallowed everything. 

* * *

He didn’t know how long he’d slept for, but it felt like an eternity, a never-ending nightmare of tossing and turning, the ghosts’ screaming and howling amplified to the mind-numbing level that he’d come to expect every time he passed out. 

Krieg, himself, had been unable to completely fall asleep, staying partly conscious while the other guy crashed out, leaving them both to suffer through another one of their dreams. It was weird how that sometimes happened. How could he have one entire personality semi-awake and aware while the other was completely asleep? Didn’t they share the same brain? Whatever it was, it left Krieg confused.

They had had another dream about the person named Grace; at least, Krieg _ thought _they did. Nothing was ever clear. All he knew was that underneath the haze of emotions and old, worn out memories of pain, there was that name. 

Of course, he couldn’t actually remember what the events of the dreams even were once he woke up. Typical. He needed to find this Grace, and it gave him anxiety to know that he wasn’t out searching.

Why? Were they really so important to warrant his gut knotting itself to pieces?

In any case, Krieg woke up tangled in the musty blanket the other guy insisted on wrapping up in, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. He didn’t feel any better than before, just less tired. That was usually how it went. 

Disentangling himself from the blanket, the other guy sat up and dropped his face into his hands, trying to block out what little light streamed through the gap in the curtains while picking the crusting gunk from his eyes. Oh, god, did his right eye hurt. However, even though standing and stretching brought with it searing aches and a few cracking joints, his back didn’t seem to hurt _ as much _, which was… definitely a plus. 

The other guy replaced the mask to block out the offensive light, the pain disappearing almost immediately, and set to work rewrapping the bandages. As he was replacing the old fur in his boots, a ping from his echo distracted him. 

Ah. It seemed that Gaige and Salvador had both been sending him messages for the last two hours, asking him if he was awake yet. Well, he was now. The newest one was from Salvador, asking him to swing by Sir Hammerlock’s for some grub if he could “ever manage to wake the fuck up.” 

The big guy didn’t bother responding, just silently pulled his boots on and grabbed the harness from the floor, pulling it on as he exited the house. 

Krieg almost had half a mind to ask the big guy if he was still upset about the poster, but he thought better of it; distrust and anger towards the people he was supposed to be cooperating with right before a fight was the last thing any of them needed. 

For once, the icy wind actually chilled him slightly, much to his surprise.

_ Well, we did wake up a sweaty mess… _

It didn’t last long, though; his skin prickled at first, but by the time he made it to the door of Sir Hammerlock’s, the fire was back, along with the big guy’s antsy fidgeting. A shiver ran down his spine and through his limbs when he opened to door and stepped inside, fingers itching to do something. 

_ We’ll get Flynt soon, big guy, just be patient for a little bit longer. _

“Nothing can keep me down…” The other guy hissed under his breath. 

Following the sounds of casual chatter, Krieg found the vault hunters in the dining room. 

Salvador and Axton were sat across from each other, talking about something to do with guns, each of them in front of an empty plate smeared with the remains of their breakfast and a mug. Zer0 sat in one of the corner chairs, cleaning their rifle and offering occasional comments to the two men. Maya sat back against her seat and held a paperback book in one hand while slowly eating something out of a bowl, probably some kind of soup or cereal, with her other. Gaige had her head propped up on her wrist, snoring lightly, an untouched plate of eggs in front of her.

Zer0 was the first to notice Krieg standing in the door, looking up from their gun. “So, it seems you have/ Finally rejoined the land/ Of the living, yes?” They said.

The soldier boy stopped mid sentence to look over at Zer0, then turned to follow their gaze to Krieg, blinking in surprise when he saw him. It took Salvador a moment longer to notice that Axton was no longer paying attention, but he grinned wildly when he saw why. 

“Aha! Welcome back, hermano! We were starting to think you’d never get up!” He gestured haphazardly with the hand gripping his mug, sloshing liquid down the side.

Axton sat back a bit to escape the airborne liquid. “Hey, watch where you’re slinging that shit, dude. Promethean coffee is a bitch to get out of clothes.” 

Salvador set his mug down and grabbed his plate, then stood and walked over to meet Krieg by the door, ignoring Axton. “C’mon, let’s get some food, eh?”

“Man, you _ just _finished your second plate, how much you gonna fuckin’ eat, bro?” Axton called over. 

Glancing over his shoulder, Salvador threw his head back and laughed. “As much as I damn well please!” He gestured into the kitchen with his empty hand. “Shall we?”

The big guy stepped back to let the short man through, narrowing his eyes as he watched him saunter over to a set of pans on the stove and set his plate on the counter. 

Turning to look at Krieg, Salvador waved him over and handed him a clean plate and a fork. “Don’t worry, big guy, I didn’t make it _ that _long ago, so it should still be plenty warm. Once you and the kid are fueled up, we’ll go show that Flynt his own entrails!” He told Krieg, raising a meaty hand up to him. 

The other guy smirked cruelly and raised his own hand to grip Salvador’s. “It’s a succulent barbecue that will leave Tinderbox _ wailing _for a bloody flood!” He agreed, his voice dropping into a guttural growl at the end. 

“Fuck yeah!” Salvador clapped his free hand against Krieg’s shoulder and nodded, then let go and walked back to the dining room. 

There was a pile of scrambled eggs mixed with what looked like chopped vegetables and sprinkled with a generous amount of cheese in one in one pan, and what he was assuming was a sausage gravy in another. A few biscuits sat on a tray on the back burner. 

“I wanted _ Flesh! _” The other guy hissed, staring down at the pans.

_ Hey, at least we don’t have to check for slag poisoning. Unless you’re gonna suddenly decide to turn into a picky eater on me now. _

He growled low in his throat and snarled, but Krieg could tell the big guy knew he was right, which only served to piss him off even more. 

Scooping a large portion of eggs onto his plate and three biscuits, he poured some of the gravy over the top and filled a glass with water, then joined the others at the table, but not without a degree of disgruntlement. 

Regardless, Krieg was overjoyed to be eating actual food again instead of just tearing wild animals apart with his teeth. He’d deny it, of course, but the other guy enjoyed it, too, Krieg could sense that much.

Like the last time, it was a struggle for Krieg to keep the other guy in line while he ate, especially now that he was fully awake. Once again, he felt eyes on him while the mask was pushed up, although Sir Hammerlock wasn’t there; maybe it was from the other men? No, they had resumed their conversation, and didn’t sound like they were paying him the slightest bit of attention. Gaige was still snoring, only her head had finally slipped to lay on the tabletop.

That left only Zer0 and Maya. Krieg legitimately couldn’t decide who was more likely, though there was a good to fair chance it was both. Or neither of them, for that matter. Maybe he was just paranoid because of the little bit of exposure… 

But _ why? _ It wasn’t like he had anything against them seeing his face, even though he didn’t really know what it looked like, but it was possible that the other guy had his own qualms. 

_ Why don’t you want to take the mask off? _

The other guy ignored him. 

_ ...Right. _

The food wasn’t piping fresh, but it was still warm, and smelled way better than the rakks, that was for damn sure. When was the last time he’d had an actual breakfast? Years? He couldn’t remember anything before the processed gruel they’d given him at the preserve. 

Although, if he was honest, the stuff Salvador and Sir Hammerlock had made earlier _ did _remind him of something from before, he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

** _“Are you hungry, Schatzi?”_ **

Who said that?! The other guy was too engrossed in the meal to care about the voice speaking behind him, settling in the back of his head, yet far away. It was different from the usual hateful voices, the deep rumble of a woman who’d done her fair share of shouting in her time, but gentle and caring in its curiosity, although the question was rhetorical. 

** _“Mein schöner Junge! Mein kleiner Krieger!” _ **

_ Who is that? _

** _“El apetito de este chico!”_ **

Another voice, this one just as deep and rugged, belonging to a man with an accent similar to Salvador’s, though there was a slight difference in the pronunciation; a different localized dialect, perhaps? From where? It certainly wasn’t Pandoran… 

Who were they? Were they even real, or just figments of his imagination?

The voices continued to whisper quiet, unintelligible things to him for several minutes until they trailed off to join the ringing in his ears. 

At some point, he heard the unmistakable sound of Gaige startling herself awake with a confused and groggy “What?” 

Just as Salvador said, once Krieg and Gaige were done, the vault hunters gathered themselves together and set out through the town’s northern gate, Sir Hammerlock bidding them good luck over their echos. Claptrap had been very insistent that he join them, but after a few choice words from the vault hunters, not to mention a few cracking knuckles from Salvador, the robot was convinced to stay behind. He would just get in the way.

At Claptrap’s instructions, when they reached the small encampment they’d cleared out earlier, they followed the frozen dock to the right and went along the edge of the icy shore towards what looked like the distant remains of a ship buried in snow, and the makeshift huts built around it from the wreckage. 

Krieg followed them from a distance, watching as the others stumbled through the snow drifts. They were talking about something, though he was too far back to clearly hear what it was, and the other guy didn’t care enough to tune is echo in. Eventually, they stopped moving and all conversation ceased, only to resume several moments later and escalate into full-on shouting.

The other guy still didn’t care to find out what it was about, but he narrowed his eyes and tilted his head slightly as he stood. What were they arguing about now? They didn’t seem angry at each other, that Krieg could tell, but they were definitely heated about _ something. _

_ Maybe Jack contacted them again? _

He grimaced at that, the big guy angered at the mention of that name and the possibility that he could be right. 

_ Easy… I could be wrong, we don’t know. _

The vault hunters started walking again, and Krieg followed. 

When they approached the shabby walls surrounding the huts, they were greeted by gunfire and the sound of the bandit king threatening to use their corpses as playthings. 

Zer0 disappeared the second the first gun went off, while the others took cover and returned fire. Gaige didn’t bother summoning her Deathtrap yet, opting to stay back with Maya and Axton and practice her admittedly poor aim.

Salvador, on the other hand, was more than happy to rush over the barricades, going in guns blazing. The big guy seemed to agree wholeheartedly with his plan of attack, leaping over the barricade alongside the short man and charging into the fray, cackling maniacally when he sliced open the back of a bandit. 

Distracted by Krieg and Salvador, the bandits focused their attacks on them instead of the others, giving Maya enough time to phaselock a cluster of bandits for them to focus their fire on.

Too soon, the last of the sods fell dead under the cruel edge of his axe. Krieg breathed heavily as he pulled the blade from the neck of a man, the other guy thrilled at the prospect of continuing their trail of slaughter up to Flynt’s doorstep, and Krieg would be lying if he said he didn’t look forward to it, as well; killing bandits and outlaws at random was all well and good, but having a reason to fight, knowing there was a goal his new companions, if not him, were working towards, then he’d gladly let the other guy loose.

So long as he killed the right people. 

_ Just remember who our real enemies are out here. _

Claptrap’s voice stabbed into his brain like a hot spike, instructing the others to a control panel to lower what Krieg had originally assumed was part of the tall scrap wall, leading them out onto a bridge connecting them to the half-submerged shipwreck.

Like they did on their way there, the vault hunters began exclaiming and panicking in disgust and surprise; it was beginning to look like his assumption of Jack contacting them was correct. 

_ Ah, too bad. _

“Shut up, shut _ up, don’t _ say it again! The blazing inferno _ bleeds _for his entrails!” The other guy apparently wasn’t too happy about Jack’s meddling, even though Krieg had been spared having to listen to it.

_ For now, at least. _

Krieg almost regretted saying that, as the second he said it, he and the big guy were overcome with disgust at the thought of Jack’s voice pouring from his echo directly into his ears to gloat just like he always did. The other guy screwed his face up into a furious glare

_ If it ever comes to that, we can turn the sound off, or the echo itself; we don’t have to listen to him anymore if we don’t want to. _

“I’ll tear his THROAT out!”

_That’s the spirit._ _But let’s turn that energy towards the bad guys for now._

He followed the others over the bridge to a small elevator. Once they reached the bottom, however, they were met with a near-deafening _ boom _, the snow a few meters to the side of them exploding into a glittering, steaming plume. Looking around frantically, Krieg spotted the source of the sound: a giant cannon near the raised prow of the shipwreck, manned by a person in yellow bandit armor.

The vault hunters scattered and scrambled to get away and find cover before the cannon fired again. 

To make things worse, a second, albeit shorter, person dressed in the same yellow armor appeared over the top of the cannon, supported by a jury rigged jetpack strapped to their back. Brandishing a hulking double-barreled shotgun, the second bandit landed somewhere to Krieg’s right where he couldn’t see. He was about to turn and rush in to find the minuscule bandit when Gaige shouted to him over his echo.

“Krieg, man, get over here, I need you to watch my back!” He looked around and spotted her leaning behind a piece of the ship protruding from the snow. Sprinting through the snow, he narrowly avoided another volley from the cannon, sliding to the ground as he reached Gaige’s cover, looking at her expectantly. 

“I need to get behind the cannon to disable it, keep it turned away from me!” She wasted no time getting to the point, having to shout for him to hear her, despite her being less than a meter away. 

Krieg nodded, then ran out from the cover in an attempt to draw the attention of the man in the cannon. He didn’t immediately see Krieg as a threat, focusing more on the vault hunters running after the jumping shotgunner, so the other guy was forced to take a more streamlined approach. 

Switching his axe to his left hand, Krieg ran towards the cannon and grabbed a smoking chunk of metal out of the snow, hurling it towards the cannoneer when he was close enough. 

The bandit only just barely saw the flying projectile in time, pushing himself to the side to avoid having it collide with his spiked helmet. Slowly, the cannon turned towards where he stood, the man inside screaming something foul at him.

In response, the other guy screamed back, roaring as he found another chunk of metal and hurled it at the bandit, then dove to the side to avoid a volley. 

The metal managed to clip the bandit’s helmet, shattering the glass in front of his eyes and forcing him to tear it off his head.

Tossing the helmet into the snow, the bandit yelled something else and began to turn the cannon back towards the others. Behind the bandit, Krieg watched as Gaige attempted to scramble up the backside of the cannon, apparently meaning to take the bandit out herself instead of disabling the cannon like she’d claimed.

_ Unless this is what she meant by disabling it. _

Growling in frustration, the other guy screamed at the bandit again and got as close to the cannon as he dared, lifting his axe to take aim.

That seemed to do it; the man gnashed his teeth at Krieg and fired a second volley at him. This time, Krieg didn’t have as much time to get out of the way, and was sent flying several feet. Within seconds, he was back up and lifted his axe to aim once again, no longer waiting to get the bandit’s attention.

He pulled his arm back and hurled the axe as hard as he could, watching with bated breath as the bandit turned, too late, to see the spinning blade closing in on him. It sunk into the bandit’s forehead, dead-center, and the force from the lobbed weapon carried him partway out of the seat he was in.

_ Nice throw! _

Gaige, who finally pulled herself up, nearly lost her footing as she jumped back in surprise at the axe burying itself in the bandit’s face. She quickly regained her senses and set to work pulling the bandit from the seat.

Krieg wasted no time getting to the cannon, hauling himself up the side to help the teen pull the body out of her way, retrieving his axe in the process. Gaige threw him an appreciative nod before he turned away, and Krieg gave her a thumbs up as he jumped down to join the others. 

The shotgunning bastard proved to be more evasive than he’d thought possible, using that jetpack of his to leap around and avoid the vault hunters’ firing for longer than anything of them liked. Now that the cannon was decommissioned, a shot from seemingly nowhere dug into one of the fuel canisters of the bandit’s back, causing him to fall mid jump into a snowdrift. 

Maya took the opportunity to phaselock him. The second the bandit was suspended in the glowing light, Gaige fired the cannon, hitting the shotgunner and turning him into a floating pulp of blood and metal. 

Regrouping around the corpse steaming in the snow, the vault hunters took a moment to catch their breath and get their bearings. 

From her spot in the cannon, Gaige leaned forward to shout at them. “I think we’re gonna have to go through that gate over there!” She pointed towards a wall of scrap metal closing the gap between two high walls of ice. 

“HEY, KID!” Axton yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. 

“WHAT!”

“YOU SHOULD TOTALLY SHOOT THE GATE WITH THE CANNON!” 

Gaige scrambled to sit up in the seat. “OH, FUCK _ YEAH, DUDE!” _

Beside Axton, Maya shook her head and smirked, rolling her eyes. She stood in a patch of sun, the light reflecting off of her eyes, making them look like they were almost sparking. Krieg had been trying to avoid letting his mind overthink about her, but as time went on, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to ignore her, especially the focused and commanding look she’d taken to using on the other vault hunters when she needed them to listen; she was quickly assuming a kind of leadership role among the six of them.

After all, wasn’t that what she’d been trained to be?

Well, ok, maybe not _ exactly _a leader, per say, but if she had been taught from a young age to control herself and how to fight, it only made sense for her to be the most level-headed one among them and take charge.

Not that the others weren’t level-headed, of course. Krieg had no idea what they were all like beneath the surface, but if his gut instincts about them were in any way accurate, then Maya seemed the most qualified out of them. Gaige was just a kid with essentially no combat experience, Axton was a trained soldier that had been discharged for disobeying authority, and while Salvador was jovial and amenable enough outside of battle, he was proving himself to be a wildly loose cannon with a one-track mind. Zer0 was too solitary, a lone wolf, and Krieg was… Krieg. He could strategize and shout inside his head all he wanted, but at the end of the day, it was the other guy who was in control. 

Besides, he had no interest in leading, even if he were in the position to; some old, deep-seated feeling told him he was more suited for partnership than leadership. It could’ve just been a product of his duality, but part of him hoped it was a hint at who he had been before it all. The only issue was figuring out what lay at the source of it.

From the cannon, Gaige yelled at them to stand clear of the barricade, slowly aiming the massive weapon towards it. Once they had all shuffled to the side, Krieg watched with no small amount of amusement as she fumbled with the controls, loudly and comically narrating her thoughts while the cannon made some odd noises, until she shouted one last “Aha!”

With a deafening rumble, the barricade was obliterated, spraying snow, dirt, and bits of metal in every direction. There was a smoking crater where it had been. 

“Oh, hell yeah!” Gaige yelled, raising her arms above her head and cackling. “Did you guys see that?!”

Salvador whistled low and set his hands on his hips. “Damn, It’s good that hunk a junk missed my ass, or else I’d have been launched to fucking Elpis.”

Walking past him, Maya patted Salvador’s shoulder as if to reassure him. “Ah, don’t worry, if something like that happens, I’m sure I'll be able to phaselock you before you leave orbit.”

“HA! Well, at least someone here cares for old Chava!” He threw his head back and laughed. 

Gaige climbed down from the cannon and joined the vault hunters picking their way over the crater, Krieg following them moments later. 

Beyond the gate stretched a wide ice floe leading to a giant spire of ice holding a massive freighter ship aloft, a jet of flame spewing from the dragon head mounted on the prow. The other guy stopped and stared at the ship, his eyes widening in amazement that the whole thing hadn’t collapsed or sunk into the ocean. In the seconds in took for the flames to stop spewing from the dragon’s mouth, Krieg fell even further behind, and had to jog to catch up with them again. 

Claptrap’s voice cut through his brain as they approached the gate. “Right! Now that you’ve gotten past his first mate, you’re gonna haveta fight your way up to the top of the freighter.”

“Wait, what? Why the very top?” Axton asked, him and Gaige stopping dead in their tracks to craning their necks to look at the ship’s underside.

“Well, you _ see,” _ Claptrap started. “I tried to stage a mutiny on Captain Flynt’s ship before the flash-freeze, and at the time, the ship was docked to the side of the freighter, and unless Captain Flynt found a use for it, which he hasn’t, it’s likely still there!”

“But you don’t know for sure.” Maya pointed out.

“Nope! It’s entirely possible he could’ve had it scrapped in order to build something else, or it could be completely out of service.” That little robot sounded awful optimistic for someone who was basically telling them that what they were doing was likely useless.

Maya sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Whatever, it’s not like we have any other choice right now. I say we follow through with the plan, and if it’s not there, it’s not there, and we’ll figure something else out.”

The sound of rusted metal scraping together tore their attention away from Claptrap. Several meters ahead, the gate to the bandit town built around the ice lifted, allowing for several bandits to rush out and open fire. 

As soon as he processed what was going on, Krieg rushed the gate to show the bandits the business end of his axe, the other guy breathing rapidly in anticipation of the bloodbath they were no doubt heading into. 

The vault hunters had expected the climb to Captain Flynt to be a slow and grueling one. With Krieg more than willing to charge every bandit he laid eyes on, however, not only did he quickly cut an impressive swath through the ranks, but his loud and imposing stature drew enough attention to himself for the others to take out their own fair shares of bandits; for every person Krieg sliced open, three more met their end on a bullet they weren’t looking out for. 

By the time they reached a section of the town built into the guts of the freighter, Krieg’s shield was beginning to give out on him, and he pulled back to the rear defense at the others’ behest. Not only that, but the precarious walkways suspended in midair forced them all to spread out or be knocked off. 

They were almost to the top when a grenade sailed up towards Axton, who dove out of the way in an attempt to avoid the impending explosion. He was too slow, and the shock from it knocked him off balance, and caused him to lose his footing.

Everyone else was too focused on the offense to notice before it was too late. Krieg, himself, turned away from the bandit he’d just bisected to catch a glimpse of the soldier scrambling to grip the sheet metal, then disappearing over the edge. 

It took a great deal of effort, but Krieg was able to force the other guy to abandon the slaughter long enough to run to where Axton fell, discovering the man dangling in the wind as he desperately clung to a broken pipe. Gritting his teeth and letting out a strangled, frustrated whine, he dropped to a knee and leaned down the grab Axton by the collar of his uniform, pulling him up and depositing him back on the walkway. 

The other guy didn’t wait to check and see how he was doing, ripping free from Krieg’s grasp once again to rejoin the fray.

It wasn’t long before the last bandit in their way was shot down. 

Gathering underneath an area shielded from the freezing wind, the vault hunters stopped to catch their breath. 

“Oh, jesus…” Axton dropped to the floor and leaned against a wall, breathing heavily and chuckling as he pulled his hood and bandana down to reveal his face, smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand. “God _ damn, _ I almost bit it back there! Did you guys see that?”

“You would have been fine/ I was prepared to catch you/ Had Krieg not grabbed you.” Zer0 appeared out of thin air. As usual, they seemed unaffected by exertion, even though the level of acrobatics they performed would’ve tired anyone out.

“Wait… What?” Gaige asked, looking perplexed from her own spot on the floor.

“A grenade went off and knocked pretty boy here off his ass, and Krieg kept him from turning into a man-shaped pancake.” Said Salvador. “I’ll be honest, I thought you were gonna end up a grease stain on some puta’s backside.”

Axton raised his eyebrows, then narrowed his eyes. “What, you didn’t think to _ help _or anything?” 

“Hey, I would’ve totally helped you up, but I had a couple bandit bastards up my own ass, you know!”

“Oh, jeez, thanks, I feel so much better.” 

“We can argue about who would’ve saved your ass later.” Maya interrupted. “Right now, though, we need to focus on the mission at hand.”

_ She really is shaping up to be the leader here. Guess someone had to… _

Axton shook his head in dismissal. “Right…” He muttered under his breath.

_ …It definitely wouldn’t have been this guy, though. _

After a short five-minute break, they made their way to a ramp that finally brought them level with the freighter’s deck. A short flight of stairs led them from the walkway down to the deck, which began to shake as they approached the helm. 

Seated in a makeshift throne crafted from the giant bones scattered around the shelf was a hulking man. 

“Well, there’s the man himself, I guess.” Maya said out loud to no one in particular.

The group managed to get halfway to the throne before jets of flame erupted from the numerous vents dotting the deck, Captain Flynt himself finally rising to great the vault hunters.

Brandishing a large, sharpened anchor, Flynt was dressed in the same yellow armor that his first mates had been, although his was more refined and better quality, a helmet adorned with tall horns obscuring his face. 

“It’s our new torture dolls, boys!” Flynt shouted. “Let’s turn up the HEAT!”

With that being said, a moderate-sized group of bandits began to crawl up from hatches in the deck, opening fire on them as they circled.

Krieg immediately ran forward to meet the bandits as they appeared, hacking and slashing while the vault hunters scattered behind him. The energy that had been building up under his skin during the ascent was finally coming to a boil now that their true target was within his - _ their _\- grasp, and the other guy was eager to let that energy loose. 

The bandits soon learned to stay away from him, running and stumbling back as he chased them down, jumping through the fire streaming from a vent at one point to bury his axe in the skull of one particularly frantic bandit. Much to the other guy’s disappointment, however, he wasn’t on fire when he came out the other side.

As they thinned the numbers of bandits on deck, Flynt became increasingly more frustrated, shouting at them to pick themselves up “and sally forth.” When only a handful remained, Flynt himself leaped from his high throne to join the fight, pulling a flamethrower off his back and attempting to light up anyone who dared stray too close, be they friend or foe. 

The vault hunters yelled at each other over their echos as they attempted to formulate a plan to take down Flynt, since their bullets simply deflected off his armor, and they couldn’t get close enough to get any clear shots.

Krieg smirked as the other guy realized his chance. “THE BARBEQUE IS ON!” He screamed gutturally, leaping through another flaming vent to intercept Flynt. He raised his axe, anticipating the moment when it would sink into the bandit king’s flesh.

Flynt heard Krieg’s cry and turned to face him, dropping the flamethrower to the deck and bringing the anchor up into a swing. 

The big guy tried to stop his forward momentum before he got a face-full of steel, but it was too late; Flynt swung the anchor, hitting Krieg directly. 

All he could do was bring his left arm up to try and deflect the blow off the metal brace, but there was too much force behind the swing, and he was knocked to the side.

Sliding along the deck, Krieg found himself over empty air, grabbing at the metal framing to stop himself from falling to his death. Swinging haphazardly from the remaining momentum, he watched his buzz-axe fall over the edge with him, turning end over end as it sailed down to the ground dozens of meters below. The vault hunters yelled into his ears, letting him know that they had witnessed his mistake.

It felt like forever that he dangled there, the only thing between him and death being the hand gripping the ruined deck, when in reality it was only a few seconds. A shadow passed over him and a pair of heavy steel boots stopped mere inches from his fingers. 

Looking up, Krieg saw the outline of Captain Flynt standing over him, the light streaming behind him making the man appear a specter twice his normal size, some kind of demon rising from the depths of hell to cast him down into the fiery pits of its master. 

Death was certain. How could it not be? He could do nothing but anticipate how it would happen: a single steel boot rising to crush his fingers under its sole like someone would smash a bug, the weightless feeling of falling, finally ending with the sharp pain of hitting the ground, and then the cold silence of death’s embrace. 

More seconds passed, or maybe none at all; time had slowed to a crawl, nothing else mattered except the demon that towered above him, lording over Krieg, for surely he held the fate of his life, and soon his death, in his armored hands. 

Kneeling down, Flynt grabbed Krieg by his bandaged wrist and held him up. The other guy waited, biding his time until he could strike and regain his footing. 

_ You can do this. _

When he was eye level with the bandit king, Krieg brought his head back and smashed his masked face into Flynt’s helmet, causing him to stagger back a step.

Roaring in pain, Flynt reached out and latched his free hand around Krieg’s mask and ripped it from his face, tossing it behind him. Krieg tried to grasp the arm, but Flynt slapped it away. 

_ Oh, now this is gonna get ugly… _

“You got a lotta nerve, grinder, comin’ into MY home and killin’ MY boys… Holy skagsuck, you are one ugly bastard! I’m gonna enjoy lightin’ you up, payback for all the men you killed!” 

Krieg bared his teeth and snarled at Flynt, bringing one of his feet up in an attempt to land a hit between the man’s legs. When Flynt grabbed the leg, Krieg shot his left arm forward and grabbed onto one of the horns of his helmet, pulling the heavy metal from his head and letting it fall like his axe had.

Flynt squinted at the sudden brightness, baring his own teeth and growling in anger. “YOU BASTARD!” The bandit king let go of Krieg’s leg and tightened his hand around his throat instead, letting go of his wrist and stepping back even more as he quickly tightened his grip. Krieg groped Flynt’s arm and wheezed.

Before his air supply was completely cut off, Krieg took one final breath and allowed the pent up energy to consume him, his skin igniting as he exhaled and let a plume of flame escape his mouth.

Flynt cried out again, his gray hair catching fire and his skin blistering. His hand released Krieg almost immediately, dropping him onto the deck while he stumbled back and tried to put himself out. 

Pulling in a few deep gulps of air and coughing, Krieg stood and leaped forward to grab Flynt, wrapping his flaming hands around his neck and knocking him onto his back. Without his axe, he couldn’t make a clean kill, and he was in no situation to use the rifle from Sir Hammerlock, so he straddled Flynt’s chest, tightening his right hand around the man’s throat. He brought his left fist back, driving it into Flynt’s face again and again, until the man’s wheezing breaths weakened and the hands he tried to shield himself with slackened and fell. Even then, Krieg continued to drive his fist into his skull until it was a dented, gory ruin, blood seeping into the cracks of the metal beneath him. 

Krieg let go of Flynt and let his own arms hang at his sides, leaning back to breathe. 

The fire was still going, but it soon went out, his boiling blood cooled by the wind and his sudden stillness. 

It was only then, when the adrenaline started to fade, that he became aware of the pain: the sharp stab of daylight cutting into the retina of his right eye, the bruise slowly forming around his neck, his lungs aching and burning, his right forearm tingling with pins and needles shooting through his nerves, the ache in his knuckles, and in his palm where his nails had dug into the flesh. 

He shivered when the bitterly cold wind bit into him, skin prickling as sweat trickled down his back.

Closing his eyes, Krieg listened to the howling wind while his heart beat furiously in his chest, slowly calming to a steady rhythm. 

In the distance, someone screamed his name. No, it was more than one person. Two, no, three. 

The other guy opened his eyes and turned his head towards where the yelling was coming from. Setting his face into a stern glare, he stood and shook some of the blood and pulp from his knuckles. The vault hunters wasted no time sprinting to where he was, skidding to a stop when they saw him standing over Flynt’s corpse.

The other guy watched in silence as they processed the scene before them, each of their gazes slowly making their way up to his unmasked face, each of them jumping in surprise when they saw him. Krieg had to admit, though, now that they were looking at him, he did feel somewhat naked without the mask. 

_ Weird. _

For several tense seconds, everyone seemed too stunned to say anything; it was only when Zer0 appeared next to them that the silence was broken. 

“My apologies/ Krieg. I tried to get here as/ Quick as I could, but/ I was too tied up to get/ Here any faster.” They displayed a sad face. Maybe unsurprisingly, they were the only one who seemed unfazed by Krieg’s bare face, a fact with which he was only marginally glad of. 

Gaige stepped towards him and gave him a look that said she was trying to pretend like she hadn’t just been staring. “Dude, are you fucking ok? We thought you died or something!”

“Yeah! Maya saw you go over the edge, but we couldn’t see where you were, hermano!” Ok, maybe Salvador was about as unfazed as Zer0, but he still looked intrigued by the development rather than shocked. 

Maya and Axton, on the other hand, had some peculiar looks on their faces; Axton was squinting like he was trying to place his face, whereas as Maya was just outright _ staring _. He couldn’t decide if her expression was good or bad. 

Krieg lifted his lip in disdain. “Nobody kills me but ME!” He yelled at them.

The pain in his eye was becoming too much for him, so the other guy turned away and looked around for his mask. Once he found it wedged in one of the vents, no longer spewing fire, he dusted it off and pulled it back on. It was odd, but he felt a degree of comfort as the metal and leather slid into place, not unlike releasing a breath held in for too long.

Before anyone could confront him about Flynt or his mask, his echo crackled and Claptrap started speaking. “Well done, minions! Now that Captain Flynt is dead, you should be able to find my ship near the back of the freighter - just head through that door! There should be a switch nearby to open it.” 

Gaige ran up to the metal door at the base of the helm, looking around the sides of it until she found and pressed something set into the wall. 

With an ear-gratin screech, the door slid upwards, revealing a small room with a staircase on one side, and another door against the back wall. The other guy meandered in with the vault hunters, absently looking around as they tried to open the door at the top of the stairs. 

It was locked, but the one on the far wall was not, opening up to the outside. 

Just as Claptrap said, there was a drift boat suspended in the air, made accessible by a catwalk. 

“Ah, there she is, me mighty vessel!” Claptrap said fondly.

“Is that even _ your _boat, Clappy?” Axton asked the robot, voicing the doubts that had been swirling around the back of Krieg’s mind since they approached the freighter. 

“Of _ course _it’s my boat, silly!”

Gaige planted a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow as she stared at the ship. “Oh, really? Where’d you get it?” 

“Anyways, there should be a console nearby for you to drop it into the water, but be careful! It might hurt a little if you’re on board when it does!” Avoiding the subject, of course. It didn’t really matter, anyways; the boat was their only ticket off the glacier. 

Salvador, Axton, and Gaige each went back through the door to the helm. Zer0 stood at the console to release the boat, while Krieg caught Maya still staring up at his face.

Or, rather, staring at his mask. 

She looked embarrassed and looked away, walking over to the rail to gaze down at the ocean stretching out before them.

Was it really that bad? He didn’t know, but surely it couldn’t be _ that _horrifying.

**“Holy skagsuck, you are one ugly bastard!”**

Krieg frowned. That really wasn’t the nicest thing Flynt could’ve said, but to be fair, it also could’ve been a lot worse. So much worse. 

Surely, if none of them had confronted him yet, then he had to be somewhere in the clear, right?

Could it have had something to do with his eye? Was that what the vault hunters were so caught off guard by? It was possible that it was simply mangled beyond recognition, but it still functioned just fine… 

The other guy walked to the railing on the opposite side of the freighter, leaning on the metal and looking back at the ice floe leading back to Liar’s Berg. 

A loud series of beeps behind him said that Zer0 finally figured out how to drop the ship. Glancing over his shoulder, the big guy watched the machine holding the boat extend outwards and release it. 

There was a several second stretch as the boat fell, then landed in the water with a _ crack. _

Zer0 stepped back from the console and looked at Krieg. “Finally, we can/ Leave this place. Sanctuary/ Get ready, here we come.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if you noticed, but the chapters are gonna start bein a little longer


	12. Oh, What A Day!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krieg has a really shitty time part 3

Krieg needed to find his axe, needed to find it _ now. _

Once that robot’s boat was dropped, him and the vault hunters started their descent back down through the bandit camp, and as soon as they reached the area where his axe fell, where he had _ almost _fell to an inglorious death, he began combing the area for the prized weapon. 

How could he have _ dropped _it like that? It was a goddamn disgrace, was what it was. 

The fools had decided to join him in his search, as if that would make him feel any better, especially after he’d slipped up and let them see his face.

What a fucking day it was turning out to be. 

The Little Man didn’t care about them seeing his face, of course he didn’t, he couldn’t understand why Krieg went to such painstaking ends to make sure nobody _ ever _ saw. The Mother had told him to, instructed Krieg to keep himself hidden, a _ secret. _ He could still hear her words clear as day, clearer than anything else.

_ “Listen to me, Krieg. Look at me. Don’t you _ ever _ let anyone on Pandora see your face, do you understand me? Get as far away from here as you can. Keep your face hidden, because if you don’t, then someone is bound to recognize you eventually, even out here. If anyone sees your face, if they see your _ eye _ , they’ll figure out your identity, they'll know who you are and people _ will _ talk, and Hyperion WILL find out. _ Jack _ will find out. Please, promise me, Krieg, please…” _

The Little Man could never understand. Krieg _ had _to, he couldn’t risk anyone figuring out who the Little Man had been. If anyone knew… 

_ He _ didn’t even want to know. He tried so hard to forget and suppress it, hoping that if he buried the remnants of the Little Man’s life, then everyone else would forget, as well; no one would ever suspect someone like _ him _to be who the Little Man had been.

It was too painful to remember, anyways. Forgetting was always easier. 

Now that the five vault hunters had gotten a good look at him, one of them seemed to have recognized him _ already, _ and the only thing keeping him from silencing them once he found his axe was the Little Man’s threat: harm a single hair on the "undeserving", on the vault hunting _ fools, _ and he would kill Krieg, along with himself, on the spot. No hesitation, no warning, no mercy. Clean and simple. 

_ You would really be willing to kill them all over a single slip-up? I don’t believe you. _

Hmph. And how would he know? He didn’t know Krieg half as much as he thought he did. They might share headspace, but he, at least, took care to try and keep his shit separate from the Little Man. Besides, the voice was too much of a coward to test Krieg’s resolve, would never give him a chance to prove the Little Man wrong without a fight. 

But killing Salvador and Gaige would be a bit difficult. The same with Maya, and not just because she was a siren. Although, the more he saw her fight, the more certain he was that she absolutely could pop his head like a zit at the first sign of trouble. 

Somewhere off to his side, two of the fools shouted at each other, asking if either of them had found his axe. 

Having finally made it to the ground, Krieg glanced around and found not what he was searching for, but perhaps something _ almost _as good. Almost.

Sitting on the frozen ground next to a dying bonfire was a large, horned helmet, slightly dented in a few places, but otherwise still intact. Flynt’s helmet. 

Grinning with glee as he remembered how _ satisfying _it was to end Flynt’s life, the euphoria of fighting for his life, of catching fire and beating the man to death, Krieg walked over to it and picked up the massive helm.

It was hefty, but much lighter than it seemed, oddly enough. The base was thick leather, with the metal completely covering the face, save for the thin cross-shaped slit in the center for sight, and the back of the skull. 

After several seconds of consideration, Krieg looked around to make sure the fools were all busy, then looked back down and pulled his mask off, quickly pulling Flynt’s on in its place. 

Oh, damn. The weight of it was expected, though still surprising; he was used to his own mask, the security of tight leather keeping the thin metal fixed firmly in place like a second layer of skin. Flynt’s helmet, on the other hand, offered no such closeness. The sensation of the cool leather interior moving against his scalp was kinda weird, too, and it smelled a little funky. Musky and burnt. But the burnt smell could’ve just been himself. 

Looking through the thin slot was a bit different from the mask’s eyehole, restricting his vision in another manner, because the helmet simply narrowed his field of vision instead of cutting it in half like his mask did. The way the metal was molded meant that even though the daylight still hurt, there was at least some shade to assuage some of the pain. 

He had to admit, it was nice to be able to look around with both eyes, and-

Wait. 

The more Krieg’s eye became accustomed to the light in the shade of the freighter, the more off his vision seemed, like his eyes were trying to focus on two separate things. 

Did it get brighter outside, or was that just his imagination?

Over his echo, the vault hunters said something about them being unable to find his axe, and that they were gonna go see if they could reach the boat. He was unsure if they were talking directly to him or to each other, as he wasn’t really listening.

Good. It was about time they let him be.

Pulling the helmet up, he squinted and looked to the door of a hut some five meters away, closing his right eye and covering it with a hand.

Within seconds, his vision cleared and he was able to focus on the sign above the door, reading off the name engraved in the metal above it. 

He looked around more until he settled on a small sign hanging next to a door on another hut, the writing blurry and illegible at that distance. Concentrating, Krieg spent several seconds trying to focus on what it said, but was ultimately unable to make it out. 

Removing the hand from his eye and opening it, he switched to holding the helmet up with his right hand while covering his left eye. 

It took a few moments longer for the right eye to readjust to being open, waiting for the blurriness to leave and once again become accustomed to the light. As he focused on the sign, the writing cleared until he was able to easily read the shaky letters detailing the open hours for some bar. Everything was slightly brighter, too.

_Whoa_ _ … that’s weird. _

No kidding. 

Opening both eyes, Krieg blinked several times and pulled the helmet back down, trying to focus on the sign, but it was just disorienting. 

Krieg frowned. Hmm… that was the thing, wasn’t it. Countless weeks of desperately refusing to uncover his eye for more than a few minutes at a time, and he somehow never noticed that the sight in it was far better than the exposed one. 

_ Maybe that’s why it always hurts when exposed. If it's the light that makes it hurt, then maybe we should see how well it does in the dark. _

Furrowing his brows, Krieg tilted his head in confusion. He’d had it exposed in the dark plenty of times and never noticed anything out of the ordinary. It was possible he just never paid enough attention, though. 

The real question was: should he listen to the Little Man’s suggestion, or should he leave it be? He still didn’t know why it was doing what it was doing, but it might be worth giving it a shot. 

Even if it _ did _turn out that their hunch was correct, if the eye was somehow better than the left, he still had to keep covered, still had to hide what would apparently give him away. Not to mention that the aching wouldn’t just go away simply because he figured yet another thing out about his weird-ass flesh-prison. 

Krieg took the helmet off and put the mask back on. He still needed to find his axe… 

* * *

The boat wasn’t bad, nor was the raunchy swaying it was bound to do on the waves; he could tolerate a bit of water. 

No, the issue was how fucking _long _they had to be on the damn thing. According to the mustache man, it was about a 16 hour voyage to the mainland, and in order to get there, Krieg had to spend the entire time in a little metal box with five other people. 

Five other people he wasn’t allowed to kill, no less. It was _ maddening. _

And they’d seen his face. They were still alive, yet they had seen _ his face. _ The Mother had specifically instructed him to _ avoid _that, quite forcefully, yet there he was. 

Why. What could the Little Man possibly see in them that could warrant him yanking him back, tightening the chain like a noose, hissing in his ear like the disgusting little worm he was?

Either way, once they’d managed to get the damn hunk of junk off the freighter, they had to get it back to the little town. They needed to refuel it and stock it with enough provisions to get them from the glacier to the mainland, then from there to that raider city, whatever it was called. 

The siren had been _ gracious _enough to return and finish assisting him in locating his beloved buzz-axe, the blade buried in the ground next to some corpses, once her and the others secured the boat. 

Having found what he needed, Krieg began the slow walk back to the town, the siren keeping stride on his left. 

She was still giving him that weird look. Why was she doing that? He shot her a glare out of the corner of his eye when he managed to catch her gaze before she could look away, her expression reminiscent of a child caught in the act of something they shouldn’t be doing.

“I’m, um, I’m sorry if it’s a sensitive topic for you, I’ll drop it if it is, but, ah…” She started, uncertainty in her voice.

_ Oh, no, here it comes… _

“_ … _Why is your right eye bright purple and glowing?”

_ …Wait, what? _

Krieg blinked in surprise and stopped walking, furrowing his eyebrows. Why was his eye _ what now? _

The pretty siren stopped as well, standing a few feet away with her hands in her jacket pockets. “I mean, it’s pretty damn obvious, so I assume that’s why you wear the mask, isn’t it? To keep it covered up?” She had a look of concern and confusion about her, but over the top of it all was intrigue, her face set and focused as if she were waiting to dissect him. 

That was never a good sign. The only other people who’d looked at him like that had been the ones who put him into his situation.

_ Wait, let her speak. I don’t think she means us any harm. _

That was unlikely. Krieg grunted in response to the both of them.

“ Right… ok.” She said quietly. “I hope you, uh, hope you don't mind me asking, but… do you, um… do you know what happened to make it… like… that? Unless it’s, like, too personal, or something; I’m just simply curious, is all.”

Yes, he knew. He wish he didn’t know, had almost managed to forget that specific time; there was no way for him to know if it had been a day, a moment, or maybe a series of ongoing experiments, but of course it would be discolored, all things considered. That coward had taken advantage of Krieg’s restraints during the quiet hours and peeled his eye open, only to jam a hair thin needle into his eye and fill it with the blazing purple pain, fill his sight with the disgusting slag that left a haze over his vision for a good long while afterwards. It had cleared over time, but he had no idea it had changed the color of the eye itself.

_ I wonder if it made the entire thing purple or just part of it. _

Hell, he didn’t even know it had even done anything besides cause him unimaginable pain until some ten minutes earlier. Or maybe he just forgot somewhere in the blur of that coward’s tests. Although, to be fair, he hadn’t exactly been in a position to notice all that much when he was back there, what with the constant agonizing pain and the relentless nightmares that tortured his sleeping hours and haunted his waking ones.

The slag in his eye had made him see… _ things _. Things he didn’t want to see. Things no human was ever meant to see. 

It was better to forget. 

Krieg said nothing, only turned and continued walking. He didn’t want to think about it anymore. 

_ Answer her. Don’t be rude. _

Staring forward, water dripped down the glaciers ahead, clear blue refracting the sun’s light off everything to turn the air painfully iridescent. The quiet crunch of snow and ice behind let him know that Maya was still following, but she hadn’t yet tried to pry. It would only be a matter of time. 

Cresting the hill leading between the glaciers to the wrecked ship with the cannon, Krieg stopped in the shade and looked out over the water, holding a hand over his eye to block some of the glare. The siren stopped next to him once again, apparently unwilling to make the rest of the journey alone. Why? Was she seriously still expecting an answer?

_ Tell her why. She asked us a question. _

Ugh. There he went again. Why was the Little Man so obsessed with his useless etiquette and rules? 

_ She can help us. _

Huffing out an annoyed sigh, Krieg grimaced and faced the siren, crossing his arms. He nodded once, slowly. 

There was a softness in her eyes that shouldn’t have been there. Why wasn’t she asking about the slag? That’s what people who pried about those things were really after, right? They all wanted to know more about fucking slag. The last time someone had time to confront him about it before Krieg killed them, they only wanted to know about the experiments. That’s all they ever wanted, _ experiments and results. _

“Does it have something to do with that wanted poster?” She looked guilty for asking, but it was clear she’d been giving it quite a good deal of thought. 

_ Yes, it is. You have no idea what they did to make us like this, to make _ me _ like this. And now they want me - _ us - _ back. _

Why did it matter if he told her or not? It wasn’t like he’d be sticking around once he was in the clear; that was the plan, right? Stay with them until he could either prove they deserved the axe or he was sure he wouldn’t immediately die from preventable causes. He didn’t want them to get close enough to find out. If he let them in, if they _ knew… _

“Gonna turn me in, blaue Dame?” He growled, bristling. 

The siren’s eyes widened. “What? No! Why would I want to do that?” The shock was replaced with concern, her brows knitting together and her mouth hanging agape. “We’re going to Sanctuary to try and help bring Hyperion _ down, _remember? By the stars, Krieg, why would we ever want those fuckers to get their hands on you?” She asked quickly.

Krieg was taken aback.

_ See? That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, big guy. She’s on our side. _

“Besides,” she continued, “I’m wanted by Hyperion just as much as you are, possibly even _ more _because of the fact that I’m a siren, and so are the others. None of us are gonna turn you in.” The siren… Maya… smiled, her face relaxing into compassion. “Hey, I get that you might… that it might be difficult to just… trust some random-ass strangers, I know I’m a bit skeptical, myself, but, ah… it’s all we’ve got right now. We’ve gotta work together and look out for each other if we’re gonna have a chance at survival out here. Safety in numbers, right? We’re a team now. That’s what teams are for.”

A breeze rolled in off the water, blowing a few locks of hair across her face, the sunlight streaming through the strands to leave bright stripes rolling across her cheeks - splotchy with color from the cold - and blue lips, glittering in her eyes as brilliantly as it did on the ocean. Aqua thunder, electrified and vicious as the bullet she’d put into his leg. 

God damn her… and God damn the Little Man. God damn them all.

But what if she was telling the truth? Did a sinner like him even deserve redemption? Mary would have his head. 

The Little Man was just a voice, but Krieg could swear he was looking at him with a judgmental glare.

Oh, _ fine… _

Growling deep in his throat, Krieg stared down at her and set his teeth, then spoke. “The cowards love their maddening, viscous soup, love to stick their little needles into pulsing meat, seeping hot blood, until the bloated carcasses bleed purple. They light the fires, then feed, feed, _feed _them until they smother and whimper in the night, but when the flames of my rage burned too hot in the wake of his indifference, the chains cracked and _MELTED _and released the BEAST! AND NOW HE WANTS HIS MONSTER BACK!” He uncrossed his arms at some point, even though he couldn’t recall exactly _when,_ and now held his hands at his sides, fists tightening until his nails dug painfully into his palms.

As expected, she was left confused, and the concern was back in even greater force. Disgusting! He didn’t need her pity.

_ She’d not pitying us, dude, it would be natural for anyone to be concerned if they heard whatever _ that _ was. _

And how would he know? He was just an annoying little tick giving his unwanted opinion. 

The siren’s eyes unfocused, looking at Krieg, but unseeing, contemplative and puzzled. She needed to _ stop _. 

_ Give her a minute to unpack all of that, at least. _

Watching her eyes shift and change as she processed it, Krieg almost unconsciously rubbed the palm of his hand across his bandaged right forearm, trying to resist the urge to tear the bloodstained fabric away and claw at the skin, to rip his flesh open and pull out the snaking tendrils of pain and the ghosts of the needles and tubes that caused it. They weren’t there anymore, hadn’t been for a long time, yet if he dwelled on it too much, he could still feel them being pushed in, feel the thick substance spreading through his veins while the voices of his tormentors and the Little Man’s past whispered in his ear. If it kept up, it wouldn’t be long until he ended up on the ground, heart racing and hyperventilating. 

This. This was why he wanted to forget. Why was everyone so keen on forcing him to remember? All it did was hurt, and not in the good way. 

“I…” Maya started. She was hesitant, unsure if she ought to proceed. “I’m not entirely sure what all of that meant, Krieg, but…” Pulling her hands from her pockets, she gestured as she spoke. “Ok, so, if I’m understanding correctly, Hyperion… imprisoned you?” She raised her eyebrows in question, waiting for a confirmation.

Exhaling heavily through his nose, Krieg nodded, once again crossing his arms.

“...And they did… something… to you, or maybe to other people?”

_ You don’t know the half of it. _

He nodded.

“But you got away, and now they’re trying to get you back.”

Krieg hesitated, but he nodded a third time. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

_ Yes. _

He shook his head and turned to walk away, dropping his arms as he made his way across the shipwreck. It was none of her business.

All that talk of Hyperion was putting him on edge; his fingers itched to kill something. If he could just find something to kill, he could lose himself in the adrenaline and the carnage and forget about it all. 

Not to mention the fact that the weird sloughing feeling in his skin was returning, like desert ground in a drought. The muscles in his shoulders tensed in anticipation of some awful stabbing sensation, or perhaps the hardness of a strike. That coward’s voice hissed somewhere behind him, unintelligible and threatening, raising the… well, he didn’t really have any hair to raise, did he? Regardless, the back of his neck prickled. 

He had made it through the town’s north gate when he heard the loud crunching of footsteps rapidly approaching him from behind, followed by the sound of the siren shouting his name, asking him to wait. A few seconds’ recognition was all the warning he had before a hand gripped his left bicep, gentle in its grasp, but firm in its suggestion that he turn. Still, he flinched at the unexpected contact. 

Moving a foot back and partially turning, Krieg looked down at Maya, staring up at him with those _ eyes _. 

She just didn’t know when to give up. An annoying and _ irritating _trait at the moment, but he supposed it could be commendable in certain situations. At least she was no coward. 

Even after he faced her, she didn’t remove the hand. It was surprisingly warm, despite the cold, and after a quick glance down, he noticed that the tattoos curling around her slender fingers had the faintest glow to them, although it very well could’ve just been a trick of the light.

“I, ah… I… I just, um… I wanted to apologize.” She said. All the curiosity and concern from before was gone, replaced with something serious and apologetic. 

Krieg narrowed his eyes. What, did she think him simple?

“I’ve never been good with social situations, so I just wanted to come out and say that, uh… that I’m, uh… I’m sorry if I… if I crossed a line.” A crease grew between her brows as she carried on. “It wasn’t my intention to upset you. I hope you can forgive me.”

Holding her gaze, Krieg waited for the charade to end, searching her face for the inevitable sign that this was all just one big farce. Why wouldn’t it be? People don’t apologize to animals if they lose control; they discipline them, they put them in their place and assert their dominance over them until one of them breaks and submits or is overpowered. 

Apologies meant nothing when the ones who dished them out did nothing to stop their actions and carried on with their abuse. 

After several tense moments, the siren showed no sign of letting up.

_ I know it might be hard, big guy, but please just try to have faith that she’s being sincere. _

Was that even possible? Why would she want to be sincere to _ him? _

Krieg glanced back down at the hand on his arm; so warm and delicate, such smooth, beautiful skin… 

_ No_. The Little Man’s musings were starting to seep through again. He couldn’t let himself get trapped in another disgusting spiral of thoughts about the siren. 

But was she really being sincere?

_ Not everyone is out for blood. _

Sighing, Krieg straightened, standing at his full height, and turned to face her completely, the siren pulling her hand back as he did. His expression softened and shoulders slumped as he relaxed ever so slightly. God, the motion made him feel so weary, like something heavy had settled into his ribcage. 

“We can only learn so much and live.” He hissed.

They were words from a life long gone, the remains of some passing fancy of the Little Man found in the final pages of some thriller coalescing into the avid lovemaking between sadism and intellectualism, between the hungry teeth of a madman and the mind of the eager and curious, but they were apt.

Maya raised an eyebrow. If she understood the intention, or recognized the line, she didn’t say. 

_ I know that line… where was it from? _

Who could say? The title evaded him, not that he cared enough to remember. 

She tilted her head as if to gesture towards the gate to the mustache man’s humble abode. “We shouldn’t keep Hammerlock waiting, then.” With that, she started off. 

Krieg rubbed the spot on his bicep where her hand had been and frowned, the area cold and hollow like a pit had opened up in its place, searing and leaking the disintegrated ashes of what felt like bits of his soul, crying out in frustration at the lack of pain, but desperate for more contact.

Why wasn’t she trying to hurt him?

He followed her up the rest of the incline a second later. 

* * *

Krieg sat inside the cabin of the drift boat. 

It had taken them over four hours or so, but eventually the boat was repaired, fueled, and stocked. They could finally get back to the mainland, and he could leave before the Little Man started getting any funny ideas. 

After the siren apologized and the two of them made it back to the mustache man, Krieg took the liberty of clearing the rest of breakfast away, leaning against the counter while attacking the still-large portions left in the pans with a fork, as well as the remaining four biscuits. The pretty lady and the handsome man, for some _ ungodly _ reason, decided to hold their conversation in the kitchen doorway, glancing over to him every 30 seconds or so as if they really needed to verify that _ yes, _ he was indeed _ still _eating. 

C’mon, it wasn’t _ his _fault he'd caught on fire.

Well, ok, maybe it was a _ little _ bit his fault… but _ still. _

Once the pans were emptied, and the other two tried to not stare at him with raised eyebrows, he downed as much water as he could. Killing Flynt hadn’t taken too terribly long, but the fire left him ravenous, as usual. 

_ See? Staying with them is a _good _thing_, the Little Man had told him. Ugh. 

Regardless, the other four fools had returned not long after, with the kid bursting into the house demanding tools to go fix the boat. 

Krieg had stopped paying attention at that point, having nothing to do but _ wait, _ and sat down on the kitchen floor in the corner of the counters, head leaning against the faded wood and arms resting on his knees. Eventually, stumpy poked his head in bade Krieg go with him, leading him outside to where they found the pretties having a serious chat with the mustache man. Something about highwaymen or whatever in a cove somewhere who apparently were likely to attack them on the water, because _ of course they would. _

Not like Krieg objected to being sent to take them out. The silence and stillness of the glacier drove him up the goddamn _ wall _. 

He’d followed the fools, minus the kid and the ninja, plus the kid’s robot, back to where they killed the bullymongs, where the pretty boy almost lost some of his prettiness, and through the cave system running under the glacial cliffs. More bullymongs, more rakks, but most importantly, more bandits, more _ prey, _more deserving pendejos for him to bury his anger in. 

In the end, the slow crawl through the shabby cove town culminated in them chasing down some tiny man riding a bullymong. It was a thrilling challenge, hunting the unlikely duo down over the sheet metal rooftops, but the one who finally claimed the kill was the short man; he’d dropped down onto the bullymong’s back while it was distracted by the others, and proceeded to snap the rider’s neck and put the ‘mong into a headlock, strangling it to death. 

It was rather impressive, really, how he managed to not only keep a strong hold of the animal, but also keep it from thrashing too much and flinging him as easily as it would a child. A very _ stocky _child. 

Good _ god_, that man was beefy. 

The return to the house, around an hour later, was quiet, punctuated only by the sound of the blue Lady and beefy talking in hushed tones ahead of him, pretty boy, and the robot. He didn’t particularly give two shits about what they were saying, but the Little Man decided to tune in, and he caught a few snippets suggesting they were discussing whether or not everyone they killed that day deserved it, questioning the bandits’ motives and the possibility that there could’ve been well-meaning people among them, not to mention young who didn’t know any better. 

The Little Man really had a panicky field day about _ that, _muttering and questioning everything until the mustache man’s voice crackled over the echo to join the conversation, personally assuring them that the bandits consisted of felons and criminals from Dahl, not to mention disillusioned former sailors and workers who had been left behind and forgotten about. How he could be so sure of that, however, the Little Man agonized over. 

Not that it mattered. Krieg didn’t care. A person is a person, and they all bleed the same in the end. 

After their return, he had promptly been put to work, along with shorty, hauling boxes up from the basement for them to go through, then out to the ship to keep them stocked. It wasn’t killing, but he was glad he didn’t have to go back to just sitting around doing nothing. 

There was a rather deferential exchange of farewells between the fools and the mustache man when the time came to leave, as the man apparently still had things he needed to do on the glacier. The robot went with them, though, much to Krieg’s displeasure. 

16 hours. 16 whole fucking hours. 

_ It could be worse. _

Sure, it could _ always _be worse, but that didn’t make it enjoyable, nor preferable.

The cabin was small; the controls for the boat were up in the front on a raised bit of the floor, and a few other machines went along one wall, with a few chairs and a table against the other wall. A hatch led down into the boat itself, into the quarters and storage. 

Krieg had taken to a corner of the cabin, sitting on a box and leaning against a sack full of something, head tilted back and staring at the ceiling. His arms were crossed over his chest in an attempt to keep the maddening fidgeting to a minimum, and was forced to stretch one of his legs out after it started shaking; it didn’t bother him any, he was used to bouncing his legs when he sat for too long, but apparently the motion bothered the others. 

The vault hunters, except for the ninja, who was at the helm fiddling with their sword, were all seated at the table, sipping rakk ale and chatting. None of them seemed to have any qualms about letting the kid drink, which made the Little Man grumble and bitch in protest. 

_ Man, she’s just a _kid.

He scoffed at that. Like the Little Man was one to talk; Krieg could vaguely recall a blurry memory of him out in the thick of it one night, raging and hollering around a fire with other teenagers, many of them older, while sucking down stolen home brew and a dark liquor mixed with some kind of energy drink. Among the encouragement of others, he’d drank himself to the point of no return, and if the faint impressions were correct, consciousness wasn’t the only thing he lost that night. 

_ Dude, just because we acted like an idiot, doesn’t mean she has to, as well. _

Heh. It was almost funny, remembering how the Little Man acted back then, so full of vigor and nerve, and now look at him.

Somewhere outside, the annoying little robot rolled along, sending uncomfortable vibrations throughout the floor and making a hideous sound, all the while rapping about something he couldn’t care less about. When it slammed the cabin door open, causing Krieg to flinch, and spun its boxy ass in, the kid made an exasperated sound from where she sat at the table. There was a scraping noise as a chair scooted back from the table, followed by the sound of the kid walking over to where the claptrap unit was. 

“Hey, Clappy!” She sounded enthusiastic, like she was plotting something 

The robot ceased its irritating singing. “What is it, minion? Come to join your fearless leader?”

“You remember how you said you wished you could be more like Deathtrap earlier, yeah?”

“Uh-huh! You got it, sister! I used to be a big-time badass before Handsome Jack left me to die.”

“Right, right, well, if you let me see the control panel on your side, I can make you do some pretty cool shit. Whaddaya say?”

Oh, no, had the girl no consideration for everyone around her and the ‘bot? 

_ And here I thought it was gonna be nice, quiet sailing. _

Pulling his head up, Krieg watched with no small amount of disdain as the robot hmm’d for a moment before relenting and turning its back to him to let the girl poke at a panel under its left arm. The others at the table paid no mind to what it was she was doing, carrying on with whatever they were laughing about. 

When she saw him watching, the kid looked up and flashed a mischievous grin, bordering on maniacal. 

_ What in the hell is she planning now? _

She spent about a minute or so fiddling with the buttons and screen on its control panel, all the while with that cheeky smirk and an almost frighteningly focused stare. The glimmer in her eyes grew until she finally tapped one of the buttons with a dramatic flair.

Immediately, the claptrap unit skittered and seized up, then pulled its arms, antenna, and wheel into its boxy body. Looking over from their drinks, the others at the table raised some eyebrows at the kid and the ‘bot, the pretty boy trailing off whatever he was saying as he processed what Gaige had done. 

“What in the goddamn-” He started, only to be cut off by the sound of some hard and heavy music blaring from the claptrap’s face, or so Krieg assumed.

_ Oh. She turned him into a speaker. How… clever of her. But is that ok to do? I mean, she didn’t exactly ask him beforehand, and it’s not like he was really hurting anyone- _

Krieg had to tune the Little Man out as he started on another one of his rambles about “morality” and “the right thing to do,” as if it mattered. 

By that point, everyone in the cabin ceased whatever they were doing to stare with a mix of confusion and amazement at the kid, who kneeled by the robot looking quite proud of herself, her grin having grown to split her face open like a toothy flesh wound. The ninja had a person shrugging over their helmet, the siren and stumpy were furrowing their brows quizzically, and the pretty boy raised one of his own while his mouth hung ever so slightly agape. 

Krieg, himself, was a bit confused, but only because he felt he should know the music playing. 

Turning back to the table, the kid slapped her right hand against the top of the robot in pride. “Well, I took care of our little ‘bot problem until we hit the mainland.”

“What the fuck did you do to him?” Salvador asked.

“Ok, SO,” she started, holding her hands out in front of her and gesturing wildly. “Back at my school, I was in the robotics club, right? And so, uh, this one time, when a bunch of us were just starting out ‘n shit, one of the teachers leading the club brought in this, like, old CL4P-TP model and let us just, like, go to _ town _on it; I’m talking, like, taking it apart, screwing with the interior hardware, the whole nine yards, y’know?”

The pretty boy blinked in confusion and held a hand out to stop her. “Wait, wait, wait… So, basically, you and your little club took apart and experimented on a claptrap ‘bot?” The kid nodded and made a loud “mmhmm!” sound. “Don’t all Hyperion ‘bots come integrated with an AI system? So, like, you guys just tortured some random ass robot for funsies?” 

_ Like you would care about the morality of _ that, _ Axton. _

“Ok, so, one: _ no!” _The kid pointed a finger at the soldier. “And two: the claptrap we worked on had been decommissioned after its AI got busted beyond salvation, so it was essentially just a, uh, like a regular ass robot. Like, it could still move and do all it’s claptrappy bullshit and what have you, but, um, it-it just didn’t have any awareness. So we weren’t just fucking with some poor bastard.”

Axton nodded slowly in understanding. “Right…” 

“So what does that have to do with what you just did to Claptrap?” The siren asked, leaning around the soldier to get a better look at the kid, who was still sitting on the floor. 

Gaige clapped her hands together. “Anyways! I found out that these steward ‘bots have their own, like, kind of a circadian rhythm they can activate. I’m not _ entirely _ sure why, but basically, if a person who owned or ordered around their own claptrap unit, they could better, uh, _ modify _the ‘bot’s working schedule by setting it to sleep for certain amounts of time at specific times, y’know? It’s basically just like a little “turn off for x amount or time” setting, or a “do not disturb” kinda thing.”

“So, what, you put him to sleep?” Another question from the short man, still scrunching his face in confusion. 

The song that was playing petered out, and a new one began. By the same band, if he was correct in his assumption. 

“Basically, yeah. It’s not like actually turning him off, his systems are still functional, and he’ll still automatically do maintenance and shit, so he’s, like, basically in sleep mode for the next couple hours. It’s not gonna hurt him any, it’s basically like if I came up behind you and vulcan neck-pinched you.”

A bit of understanding dawned on the soldier’s face, and the short man seemed to understand somewhat. The ninja flashed a :O and then a sly smiley face, and Krieg, himself, felt like he should understand whatever it was the kid was referencing. 

_ “Vulcan neck-pinching”…? Man, I feel I should know this. Agh… Oh! _

Right… Star Trek. 

Still leaning around the soldier, the blue Lady scrunched her face up. “Uhhh, what’s a “Vulcan neck-pinch?”

“Um, _ what?!” _Gaige looked affronted at the question, recoiling, but just as soon calmed herself. “Wait, wait, shit, sorry. That’s right. My bad!”

The soldier turned away from the kid to face Maya. “It’s a thing from an old-ass sci-fi show. There’s these aliens called Vulcans who can make a person pass out instantly by taking their hand and pinching someone-” he lifted his right hand and hesitantly pressed it against her shoulder. “-Like this. It’s supposed to knock someone out almost instantly, but it’s not, like, an actual thing.”

“Oh, I… see.” The siren still looked a bit perplexed, but she seemed to understand what they were getting at. 

“Man, oh _ man! _ The second we get the chance, we’ve gotta get Maya caught up on _ so much!” _ Gaige crossed her legs and gripped her ankles, leaning back against the claptrap. 

Krieg’s neck was starting to ache a bit from the way he was holding it up, so he gave up and set it back down. 

It was weird… there was something familiar about Gaige, but not in the way that the soldier was familiar. No, the pretty boy was familiar in that he made Krieg feel like he ought to know him from somewhere, whereas Gaige reminded him of a faceless, nameless ghost, he just didn’t know who. He didn’t _ want _to know, per say, but the feeling persisted, nonetheless. 

The familiarity was tinged with sadness, too, as the kid never failed to deposit that heavy feeling into his chest, like she was someone he should be protecting at all costs. 

It was _ disgusting. _ He didn’t protect people, he _ killed _them. The Little Man had been many things in his time, and Krieg was many others, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t scrub away some of the Little Man’s more ingrained instincts. She wasn’t his fucking kid, and he’d be damned if he let himself fall victim to what the Little Man’s portion of his brain wanted. 

Sighing, Krieg shut his eyes and focused on the music, trying to put the thought out of his mind. 

The Little Man listened to what the others’ conversation, which had resumed, only now they were discussing the music choice. The two men didn’t seem to have any issues with it, although the siren confessed that she wasn’t sure what to think of it. The Ninja had nothing to offer to the conversation. 

_ I don’t suppose you would happen to be able to put your finger on what band this is? I swear, I know it, it’s on the tip of my tongue… _

The song came to an end and faded out, and in its place blared something entirely different, a loud, powerful voice shouting “In blood we trust! In blood we trust! In blood we trust, hallelujah!” 

_Oh, _that’s right! _This was the song from yesterday, remember? _

Yeah… the kid had it written down the back of their jacket, with some lycanthropic design and the band’s logo along the front. The sight of the words led to him having the half-remembered tune stuck in his head until he eventually passed out. 

_ Powerwolf… Man, I don’t know when the last time I listened to these guys was. Feels like it’s been forever. _

It probably had been, all things considered. Focusing on the song, a faint memory of being in a field floated through, standing out in the sweltering heat with some tool in his hands, toiling in the dirt while the sun beat down and sweat trickled between his shoulders, music blaring from somewhere behind him, the Little Man loudly singing along to the strong, lilting operatics in his second tongue. 

There was no pain, no feelings of loss or nostalgia attached to the memory like many of the others; it felt like several lifetimes ago, lost somewhere amidst the jellied fantasies of youth, yet Krieg was sure to push it away before it could overtake him, or even worse, the Little Man. 

Too soon, it felt like, the song was over, another unplaceable band taking its place. 

Krieg sighed once again and sat up, opening his eyes and rubbing the back of his neck. Ugh, sitting like that really was _ not _comfortable after so long, and his neck was starting to complain pretty loudly. 

The kid had rejoined the fools at the table, and the ninja was in the process of taking apart and cleaning their rifle. 

Standing with a groan and a wince, Krieg rolled his shoulders back and cracked his neck, then stepped out of the cabin into the cold. Closing the door behind him, he could see the southern shelf retreating rather quickly behind them; he had no idea how fast the boat was going, but it had to be a pretty decent speed if they were already that far away and only about an hour, at the most, into their voyage. 

The laxness was already starting to grate on his nerves. There was nothing to kill out there, unless he felt like fishing. 

Smacking the inside of his fist against his hip in boredom, Krieg meandered around the cabin until he reached the break in the rail, what would soon become a rather dangerous spot to stand in once they got further out into open waters. He stared out over the gray waves, watching the whitecaps blooming and disappearing. 

Looking back at the cabin windows, he checked to see what the fools were doing. I was a bit difficult to catch a glimpse of them, but they were still drinking and joking, it seemed. None of them gave two shits about what was going on outside, about the dark clouds rolling over the horizon in the far distance. 

Krieg turned back to the choppy waters. The only downside to trying to rehydrate himself after his desert excursions was the inevitable need to piss like a fucking racehorse if he drank too much at once. But really, what else was he supposed to do? There was no way to know how long the access to good water would last, he had to take advantage of it while he was still able. 

A peel of laughter rose from the cabin. He really didn’t want to admit it, but… the siren’s words had some truth to them: there was safety in numbers. 

Why was he even so keen on surviving, anyways? It wasn’t like he was _ enjoying _being alive; he felt like it was all just one great big joke, a never-ending nightmare that the universe was putting him through just to see how much bullshit he could take before… before… before… 

_ Don’t say it. We can’t. We still have to find Grace._

Grace… the name gave him the same heavy feeling that the kid did, except way, way, _ way _more severe, almost suffocating, really. Overwhelming. 

He would never give up, anyways. Krieg was no quitter, he was no _ coward. _To take his own life would mean that everything he had done thus far, everything he subjected himself to in order to survive, would have been wasted. It would mean that Jack had won. 

The thought of dying didn’t scare him, even though he no longer held onto the faith of any kind of afterlife, had long since given up the belief that there was anything, or any_ one, _ watching over him. He would not stoop so as to carry out the deed, no matter how many times he contemplated how simple it would be. However, if he were to suddenly meet his end at the hands of something, or someone_, _besides himself, and he was ultimately unable to stop it, then he would have no problem accepting and welcoming the blackness of death. 

Turning away from the rail, Krieg made his way back into the cabin, pulling open the hatch on the floor and dropping down into the guts of the boat. Christ, it was going to be a long trip. Maybe if he could just find something to do, something to occupy himself with so he wasn’t just sitting and twitching the entire time, twiddling his thumbs and going even more off the deep end from the horrific stillness. 

That was the worst thing; not the smallness of the boat, not the waves, not boredom, not the impending feeling of a storm brewing, but the _ quiet. _Silence was never good, and silence in a place he couldn’t get out of wasn’t a good feeling. 

Loud noises and unwanted contact meant the coward and the Mother were back for another round of tests, but silence meant he would be left alone in that stark white room, left alone with only his thoughts and the Little Man and the agonizing pain, left chained, muzzled, and unable to move. It was restricting and suffocating. 

The brace on his arm suddenly felt three times its weight, and the leather around his shoulders and the bandages grated against his skin like sandpaper. 

His breathing speeding up and heart racing, Krieg desperately looked around at the inside of the boat, searching for something to take his mind off of everything. The storage area held only the supplies he’d helped haul over, same with the little kitchenette, while the quarters were spartan. A single tiny bathroom held nothing of importance, either. Returning to the kitchenette, he dug through the cupboards and drawers, finding them all bereft of anything of interest besides a couple of pastries sealed inside plastic wrappers. 

_ Hey, we haven’t had something like this since we’ve been out. _

That was true.

_ Could be worth the risk…? _

Krieg wasn’t sure if they were bad or not, hesitantly unwrapping one and taking a bite. It didn’t _ seem _ to be any bad, but god _ damn _that was a lot of sugar. It was tasty, though. 

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he made his way through the rest of them, slowly chewing on each bite, making sure to notice the textures and tastes to try and ground himself and put some distance between him and the white room. 

Damn, he didn’t realize how much the Little Man loved shit like that. 

When the last one was gone, he stood and gathered the wrappers up, tossing them into a small trash can on his way out. 

Making his way back up into the cabin, the sound of music and the vault hunters’ casual conversation was almost welcome after the quiet. The ninja was still at the helm, but they seemed to be done with their weapon maintenance and was now watching the vault hunters with what he thought could’ve been a placid smiley face overhead. 

The music playing was something different from what the kid had played, something more electronic and jiggy.

_ Someone else must have picked it. _

Krieg grunted in response as he hauled himself up off the ladder and shut the hatch. 

That alerted the others to his presence, the four at the table turning to see what the noise was. 

He was greeted with a chorus of Hey!’s and raised bottles, the short man pulling a chair out next to him and slapping the seat. Krieg wrinkled his nose at the thought of having to sit between the other two men, what with their combined loudness and general lack of awareness of their surroundings. 

_ C’mon, it’ll be a good distraction, even if you don’t want to talk. _

Well, he supposed he could; the rakk ale _ was _good. He walked over and turned the chair around to sit backwards in it as he joined the fools. God help him if they decided to start questioning him like the siren had, he would jump into the water and swim back to the glacier. 

_ Have a little faith, dude. _

The short man handed him an ale from somewhere beside him, likely a box of the bottles, if the glassy rattling was anything to go on. How much of that shit did he _ have? _

Much to his surprise, the fools didn’t pay his arrival any mind, carrying on with their conversation without issue, not even a wayward glance when he pushed the mask up to drink. It was… nice. Unexpected, but nice. 

Any taste of the pastries left on his tongue was washed away, replaced by the bite of the ale. He wasn’t really paying much attention to what they were talking about, and neither was the Little Man, weirdly enough; the bastard always loved sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. 

They were animated about _ something, _that much was obvious, likely the result of the collective buzz growing among the four. 

It was going to be a long 16 hours, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who's curious, by the time they set sail, it's been about 45 hours since the train crash, and around a real-time week since chapter one.


	13. Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to the mainland at last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning for a bit of body horror at the beginning

Where was he? Everything was always so dark behind the mask’s tinted glass. He could never see much besides what was directly in front of him, and the metal collar kept him from turning his head to look around. Not like he really needed to, anyways, he knew there wasn’t anything of interest. 

Something was different, though. He _ felt _different, strange, almost incorporeal. 

From somewhere in front of him, a hand reached out and grasped him by the chin, roughly yanking his head upwards. He could barely see a man’s face closing in on his own through the glass, a plain, pale man with short brown hair and squinty eyes, wearing a white lab coat with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows

“We’re gonna have a little _ fun, _just you and I, War.” The man said, licking his lips as he shifted Krieg’s face side to side. His voice was on the higher side, with a slight accent he could never place. 

Krieg tried to pull away from the man, to get away from the cold, dry fingers digging into his skin, but the restraints left him barely any room to move. “Ah, ah, ah, not so _ fast, _War.” The man tightened his grip on Krieg, and he soon felt a sharp prick against the side of his neck, followed immediately by his nerves slowly going numb, and then his muscles tensing until he couldn’t move. 

Once the man was sure Krieg was immobilized, he released his head, allowing it to drop before gingerly easing the mask upwards. A metal buckle caught on a few strands of hair as the man pulled the mask completely off, the follicles ripping out with more pain than should be normal. 

Of course, everything seemed to hurt more when this coward was involved. 

Once again, the man gripped his chin and pulled him uncomfortably close, his warm, sour breath washing over Krieg and making him want to vomit. 

“I promised you a little quality time without the interference of dear Sammy or the other rascals, now, didn’t I?” 

Krieg wished to god he could move, wished he could speak so he could tell him exactly what he thought of his _ quality time. _

“Oh, no, no, no!” The man clicked his tongue with mock disappointment. “You see, I’m doing this for your own _ protection, _War, and my own continued safety! We can’t have a repeat of what happened last time, now can we?” He stuck his lower lip out in a pout at the mention of “last time.” 

What “last time?” 

It was odd, but the man’s face seemed to almost shift, slowly, but surely, becoming more and more angular, then reverting back to its original shape. 

“But I can’t let you go unpunished for it, either, you know; you were a _ very _ naughty boy, yes indeed.” The man held his other hand up, holding a thin needle filled with a shimmering liquid, shifting and oscillating inside the syringe to give it the appearance of something almost alive, rapidly changing its colors from a shiny purple to jet black to crimson, and then back again, never settling on one complete form or shade. “This _ will _hurt, War, I will say that much.”

The needle was promptly brought up to Krieg’s face, sinking into the flesh underneath his right eye, the man laughing and cackling like a deranged old woman as he slowly injected the foul substance into him. 

As if on cue, the man’s face was no longer reverting to its normal shape, staying locked in its pattern of lengthening and growing outside of human proportions. The same liquid being injected into Krieg was now seeping from the man’s eyes, sliding down his face to collect and drip off his chin. 

Krieg wanted to run, to hide, to look away from the man so he didn’t have to watch in abject horror as his mouth slowly unhinged and his jaw dropped, thick, black fluid bleeding from his gums to snake their way up his pallid flesh like little worms, veining out until they were running down his arms towards Krieg. 

He tried to pull away, but whatever the man had injected into him initially kept him effectively paralyzed.

The man’s face had fully morphed from anything recognizably human into a stretched crevasse filled with needle-y teeth and two gaping black holes where his eyes had been, still cackling and shaking while refusing to release his hold on Krieg. 

The cackling turned into a long, hissing wail as the man began to lean backwards, something large attempting to crawl its way out of his body, and soon the top of a head poked out of his mouth. The arms holding his head and the syringe fell away, flaccid and thin. 

A woman climbed from the limp remains of the man, the same shifting liquid dripping from her eyes and nose, surging forward to grip Krieg’s shoulders and roughly shake him. 

“Listen to me, you need to get out of here! They’ll find out soon, if they haven’t already, and you need to be gone by then, do you hear me?” She was frantic, her eyes wide in horror and fear. The liquid poured from her eyes at an exponential rate, flowing down the lab coat she wore. 

How could he get away if he was still paralyzed, not to mention restrained? 

Removing her hands, the woman pulled a set of keys from her coat and set to unlocking the restraints. Strange, they weren’t locked with a key before. 

The collar fell away from his neck, the chains rattling as it hit the floor with a loud _crash, _followed soon by the metal braces around his forearms and the chains surrounding those. Several tubes and leads ripped free from his skin as they fell away, but he didn’t seem to care about it, didn't seem to feel them, despite the blood running down his arms. 

Krieg fell forward against the woman, having nothing to support him anymore. It was a good thing he was already on his knees, otherwise she would’ve no doubt been unable to stop his forward momentum without getting crushed, herself. 

She pounded a fist against his back, sobbing. “Please! You need to leave, now!”

He couldn’t, though. He couldn’t move, much less speak. Hell, he could barely even breathe. 

“You can! You _ can! _Leave, now!” 

Krieg tried to lift an arm, but the muscles only twitched. He continued to try to move, and slowly, oh so painstakingly slowly, the feeling returned to his nerves. Pushing himself to sit back on his heels, Krieg placed his bloodied hands on the woman’s shoulders and held her at arm's length. 

He recoiled when he saw that she was suffering the same fate as the man, her face and body twisting and contorting as it oozed black fluid and melted into an oblong shape, her desperate crying turned to the shrill wailing of something not entirely human. 

Krieg shakily got to his feet and stepped over her collapsed form, along with the melted remains of the man, stumbling to the metal door in front of him. It pushed open without any effort, the locks broken, causing him to fall forward to his hands and knees as the door fell away. Staring down, he saw the blood dripping down his arms was taking on the same look as the shimmering liquid, shifting and pulsing in a growing puddle around his hands.

Something fell from above, a lock of black hair landing in the puddle before turning silver, then igniting and burning out into ash. His scalp started to itch, and when he reached up to run his fingers through his hair, he pulled away thick clumps that all burned away to nothing, the ashes melding together into the black fluid. Krieg brought his hands up to his scalp and furiously scratched at the itching, which was soon replaced by the black fluid dripping down his neck.

Standing, Krieg found himself in an impossibly long hallway. The ceiling, if there was one, was high up and lost among the shadows. It seemed both narrow and wide at the same time, moonlight falling in through windows lining the entire right side, while the left wall was somehow still drenched in shadows. 

There was nothing to do except run, run and don’t look back because there was something behind him, something on his tail that would stop at nothing until it found and consumed him, leading him to a fate not unlike the man and the woman he left behind. The liquid injected into his face burned as it spread up into his eye, searing his retina and causing his eye to dilate. 

A figure appeared before him as he ran, rapidly approaching at horrifyingly inhuman speeds, yet never seeming to move faster than a brisk walk. As it got closer, he saw it was the man from before, only his face was back to normal, save the black pits where his eyes ought to have been, contorted into a look of rage. 

**“WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WAR?! WE’RE NOT DONE YET!” **It shrieked, growling and gnashing its teeth at Krieg as it drooled that black fluid. He had nowhere else to go, so he simply raised his bloody arms to block himself as he ran. The man disappeared as it made contact with Krieg, vanishing into the air like an apparition. 

Another person appeared ahead, this one a different woman with long brown hair tied back and dressed like some kind of secretary. Her face was much the same as the man’s, but there was a large chunk of flesh missing from her throat, blood gushing from the wound and her windpipe torn open and swinging free. 

**“YOU’RE NOT A MAN! YOU’RE AN ** ** _EXPERIMENT!” _ **This one howled as it scurried towards him and disappeared. 

Another figure, an indistinct man dressed in dark leathers with wavy brown hair, a primitive gas mask from some ancient war obscuring his face.

**“YOU’RE NOTHING! THIS IS WHAT YOU ** ** _DESERVE! _ ** **HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF A HUNTER!” **Unlike the others, this one raised its hands as it came closer, reaching towards Krieg like it wanted to strangle him. 

Then there was a third woman with tanned, bronze skin and long, curly red hair, bleeding out from a knife embedded in her gut. The black fluid poured down from between her legs, staining her ripped jeans and leaving a trail along the floor. **“SHE’S GONE! SHE’S GOING TO DIE, AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO SAVE HER! YOU LEFT HER TO DIE! ** ** _YOU LET ME DIE!”_ **

There were several more figures after the red-haired woman, all of them with the same twisted face bleeding black fluid, but the more they came at him, the thicker and darker it became, until they had what appeared to be oily tentacles hanging from their mouths and eyes. All of them screaming insults and threats.

The ominous and dangerous feeling of something behind him only grew as he ran, until his neck was bristling and the only thing he could feel was blind terror, fear of what would happen if he kept going, but not wanting to stop and let the darkness swallow him whole. 

Finally, after what felt like ages of running, of being hounded by dozens of the figures, Krieg found himself in front of a pair of heavy metal doors. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew that behind the doors lay freedom, lay his escape.

The only thing standing between him and freedom was a child.

She was small, no more than six or seven years old, at the most, with tawny skin, thick black hair pulled into an intricate braid, and luminous green eyes staring up at Krieg, staring into his own to pierce his soul with the intensity of a raging fire. 

“Where were you? You left me to die!” She shouted up at him. There was fear in her voice, but also anger and betrayal. 

“I-I… I-” Krieg tried to say something to her, to tell her that he hadn’t, that he didn’t leave her, but he couldn’t form the words; they lodged in his throat, choking him every time he opened his mouth to speak.

An indistinct noise grew behind him, the senseless whispering and hissing of dozens of voices all shrieking their accusations at once into his ears. He wanted to turn, to look back and see what was chasing him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do more than slightly turn his head and frantically look out of the corner of his eye. The air in the hallway was heavy and musky, making him feel like he was starting to suffocate. Panic rose in him as he struggled to breathe.

The little girl raised an arm to point at him. 

“**YOU LEFT ME TO DIE! YOU ABANDONED ME HERE ON MY OWN! WHERE WERE YOU, VATI? WHERE WERE YOU? I NEEDED YOU, AND YOU LEFT ME!” ** She was screaming now, and as she did, something started to bang against the doors she guarded, _ many _somethings. 

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!” He finally managed to cry out, rushing forward to grab at the little girl. 

The hissing behind him grew ever louder, and as he was about to reach out and grasp the little girl’s hand to try and save her, the doors burst open to reveal the countless figures that had been hounding and howling at him. With their void-filled eyes and dead flesh covered in black fluid, they grabbed the little girl and began to pull her back through the doors with them. 

Krieg tried to go faster, to get to her before she was gone forever. Something slimy wrapped itself around his ankle. 

**“VATI! HELP ME, VATI! DON’T LET THEM TAKE ME AGAIN!” **The little girl screamed, the anger on her face replaced entirely with fear, now desperately reaching for Krieg, tears streaming down her face. 

“No! I won’t let them hurt you, Grace! GRACE!” Krieg was just barely close enough to graze the tips of her fingers when more of the slimy tendrils encircled his limbs, crawling up his legs and around his arms and pulling him back. The voices were deafening now, drowning out any cries the little girl made. He struggled against the black tendrils, against the darkness pulling him in, but it was no use. 

The little girl was pulled through the doors, which slammed shut and locked, and Krieg was yanked back into the smothering cold of oblivion. 

* * *

The voyage back to the mainland had been slow and boring, as far as Maya was concerned. After she’d gotten a little drunk along with Axton and Salvador, she’d passed out in one of the quarters, only to wake up several hours later. The hangover could’ve been worse, but being in a small boat in the middle of an ocean, the motion was hardly helpful, and she’d promptly taken herself outside to vomit into the water. The freezing spray succeeded in completely waking her up like a slap in the face, as well as washing away what stuck to the hull. 

She spent the next ten or so hours trying to meditate, and when that didn’t work, she worked her way through the book on her hip, as well as another in her storage. At some point, Salvador utilized the cramped mini-kitchen to whip something up in between cursing the waves. 

Gaige was content to listen to music and tinker with her arm, while Zer0 sat at the table with her, their feet propped up and crossed on the back of another chair. The two seemed to get on rather well, if their animated, and vaguely antagonistic, conversation about various shared interests was anything to go on. Maya wasn’t _ trying _to eavesdrop, but there were only so many places on the boat for her to go.

Axton had taken to variating between haunting the bathroom and one of the beds, as he apparently wasn’t really the sea-faring type; about two or so hours in, he became violently seasick. When he wasn’t hunched over the bathroom toilet, moaning and retching, he was huddled underneath a mountain of blankets he stole from the other beds. 

Both Maya and Salvador had tried to help him, with her trying to use her healing abilities to ease some of the nausea, which ultimately didn’t work. Salvador, on the other hand, tried to get him to drink some kind of brothy soup. She wasn’t entirely sure how effective the broth was, but Gaige took it upon herself to look up how to combat seasickness.

Surprise, surprise, Axton adamantly refused to do any of the things listed, choosing to wallow away in his “hedonistic nest,” as he called it, while munching his way through several sleeves of crackers.

And Krieg… well, he probably could’ve done worse, especially compared to Axton; he spent the entire time antsy and fidgety, pacing around outside and muttering to himself. When he wasn’t outside, he was in the cabin, sitting on a crate in the corner and fiddling with his axe, taking the head apart and cleaning every little spot with a rag before putting it back together. 

He seemed to calm down somewhat when he was inside, or at least in a spot where someone could be heard speaking, but he didn’t want to participate in any conversation. Gaige and Salvador tried to initiate a conversation with him several times, but their attempts were shot down when he either refused to answer or said strange things that everyone, except maybe Salvador, could barely decode. It didn’t _ seem _ like random nonsense to her, as there appeared to be some kind of odd patterns or themes, like a… an eccentric form of poetry, almost. She just wasn’t sure what the patterns _ were. _Even Zer0, who was a self-professed “master p0et,” admitted that they had trouble seeing the patterns. 

Right on schedule, once an entire 16 hours had passed since Gaige turned Claptrap into a speaker, the music ceased and the little robot popped out of his shell and resumed his march of madness across the boat, going on about how he “had such a great nap!”

It was about that time that Zer0 returned to the helm and announced that the mainland was in sight, and spent the next half hour steering them into a small frozen port on the edge of a beach covered in a thick layer of ice and snow. All in all, the entire voyage had taken them around 17 hours. 

Gathering some of the provisions together and bundling up the best they could, the six of them, without Claptrap, who wanted to wait back on the boat, for some unknown reason, slowly made their way up the beach. There had been a path up between the icy cliffs lining the beach, with a long bridge made of scrap spanning the gap far above their heads. 

As they’d approached the cliffs, they heard the distant sound of gunfire and shouting, followed by the screech of engines and tires. They managed to make it past the underside of the bridge before the sound of gunfire redoubled in intensity, a pair of vehicles speeding across the bridge. Once the last car made it across, a sentry mounted on the back of the vehicle shot at one of the supports, causing part of the bridge to collapse downwards. 

The local echo frequency crackled as someone, presumably one of the people in the cars, sent out a public broadcast, announcing that the "bloodshot bastards" would never make it to Sanctuary. Undeterred, a much larger and bulkier car soon followed, revving their engine and jumping the gap with a chorus of unhinged cackling. How they jumped the gap, though, Maya was uncertain. 

There wasn't really anything they could do about it at that point, anyways, so they simply carried on up the trail, trudging through the knee-deep snow for around 20 minutes before the ground finally leveled out. Rounding a corner, they found themselves at the top of the cliff, somewhere behind the scrap wall they'd seen from below. Far off, the wall stretched to enclose a bandit encampment, made accessible through a giant reptilian skull. 

Closer to the bridge was a covered area protecting a metal device and a pair of vending machines. According to Salvador, the device was called a "Catch-A-Ride," the local source of vehicles, digistructed from spawning rods running underneath a pair of platforms connected to the panel, or so he claimed. 

Maya would have preferred to simply find a way to get over the broken bridge and be on their way, but as they approached, a bandit clothed in ratty furs painted with a complex red design shouted at them, alerting the rest of the bastards in the camp of their arrival. 

Thankfully, the remaining bandits, who Maya was assuming were the "bloodshots" mentioned by the man who destroyed the bridge, were still recovering from their earlier attack; many of them lay dead in the snow or were injured, making their job that much easier. 

Once they shot down the last one, Axton suggested they stop and rest for a while before dealing with the bridge and carrying on. There was much debate between him and Salvador, as the shorter man was just revving to keep going. They eventually turned to Maya, asking her to act as a mediator between them when neither of them refused to back down.

She had to agree with Axton; while they'd certainly had time to rest on the boat, sleep in that rickety rust-bucket had been almost impossible. Salvador was disgruntled, but he accepted and soon let it go without any further complaints. 

A large fire burned low in the center of the camp. They discussed whether or not they ought to sleep in the huts, but a quick examination of them led a firm no from four of them. Zer0 had no opinion on the matter, as they still claimed it was unnecessary for them, and Krieg apparently would've been fine either way, saying something about sleeping in the gut of a rotting corpse if it was available. 

The final agreement between the five was to bundle up around the fire while Zer0 offered to take watch. 

Salvador and Krieg went around and gathered up as much fuel for the fire as they could, as well as cleared away the bodies, while Axton and Maya collected furs and blankets from around the camp, then divvied them up between each other. Maya, Gaige, Salvador, and Axton all curled up under their own piles, while Krieg sat cross-legged with a particularly large pelt around his shoulders, staring into the fire.

Really, though, it wasn't nearly as bad as Maya would have expected; the sun still had quite a bit of time until it set, so it could’ve been colder. _ Much _colder.

Or, rather, it wasn't bad until she was violently awoken by the sound of gut-wrenching screaming coming from somewhere very close.

She'd been dreaming about something from her childhood when the screaming started, dragging her back to consciousness almost immediately. Startled, she thought they were being attacked, that they had either been ambushed by bandits lying in waiting, or the local wildlife had decided to say hello. 

It didn't matter, Maya was out of her makeshift bedroll and reaching for her gun before she even had time to process that there was nothing there. 

Like Maya, the others around the fire were quick to wake, Axton in particular jumping to attention with an impressive amount of clarity and practice. 

As she stood up, Maya soon discovered that the source of the screaming was Krieg, laying on his side and thrashing about while simultaneously attempting to curl into the fetal position, howling as if in severe pain and shouting something incomprehensible in that weird language of his as loud as his lungs would allow. 

Which, it turned out, was pretty damn loud. 

Her and Axton stumbled over to where he lay, Zer0 appearing nearby with a series of exclamation points flashing rapidly over their helmet. The three of them looked between each other and Krieg, wanting to try and wake him up before he attracted unwanted attention, but not wanting to get closer to him for risk of injury.

Salvador had no such worries, as the man wasted no time dropping to his knees next to Krieg and placing a hand on one of his shoulders, shaking him with a generous amount of force and telling him to wake up. 

That seemed to do the trick, but the larger man must have still been confused and lost in whatever nightmare he’d been having, because his immediate reaction to the contact was to curl the fingers of his right hand into a fist and drive it into the side of Salvador's head while pushing himself up with his left. He tried to stumble away from them, succeeding in making it about five meters before tripping over his own feet and falling face down into the snow. Krieg made no attempt to get up, lying in the snow with one arm above his head and the other sprawled out to the side, breathing heavily and making some kind of sobbing noise.

Zer0 ran over to kneel at his left side, hesitantly holding a hand above Krieg like they weren’t sure whether or not further contact would make the situation worse. Once he recovered from the blow, Salvador was on his feet and at the man’s other side, following Zer0’s lead of abstaining from further physical contact. 

Gaige was still in her own bedroll, staring dumbfounded as she watched the scene unfold.

Beside her, Axton muttered a few choice swears under his breath, planting his hands on his hips and putting his weight on one leg. He looked shaken, and rightfully so, but he shook his head in annoyance and turned back to his bedroll. 

What was that all about? 

Maya was unsure what to do in the situation; her expertise was in _ making _ people scream, and aside from her weak restorative capabilities that she’d only used a literal handful of times, she had little to no knowledge on what to do in order to _ help _people. 

Looking around, she grabbed the pelt Krieg had been wrapped in and shook the snow off it, walking over to join Zer0 and Salvador. The assassin had pulled their hand away and squatted an arm’s length away. Salvador was on one knee, an arm resting on his thigh while he silently stared down at Krieg. Maya could see the gears turning in his head, working his jaw and silently debating the best course of action. There was an angry red mark where Krieg’s fist connected and split the skin, some blood dripping down his cheek.

When he saw Maya approach with the pelt, his eyes lit up and he reached a hand out. Maya handed the pelt off to him, and he promptly draped it over Krieg’s back, who flinched severely when it settled onto him.

“Hey, man, are you fuckin’ ok?” He asked, his face reflecting Maya’s own apprehension. 

Krieg slowly took in a few shuddering breaths and got his hands underneath him, pushing himself up to sit back on his knees. The pelt fell down, and Salvador quickly picked it up and placed it back around his shoulders.

“Sounds like you had one hell of a dream, there, eh?” Salvador was trying to sound upbeat, despite the alarm still lingering in his eyes. 

Krieg didn’t respond. He grasped the sides of the pelt and pulled it close to him, hunched forward. 

Zer0 displayed a frowning emoji. “Do you require/ Space, or would you rather us/ Stay here? It’s your choice.” 

Once again, Krieg said nothing, but he did let out a throaty, pained whine and vigorously shake his head, shuddering as he hunched over even more and pulled the pelt tighter. 

Maya carefully stepped around Krieg until she could see the front of him, squatting so her knees were pressed to her chest. Even though his head was bowed, she could see his eyes, or at least the visible one, were squeezed shut. A great deal of sweat was beading along his scalp and running down his neck. What could he have possibly dreamt that would cause him to react so strongly? Certainly, back at Liar’s Berg, she’d heard him muttering occasionally through the wall, but lots of people talk in their sleep. 

This, though… she hoped it was an exception and not the norm. 

“Krieg.” Maya said softly, hoping the decrease in volume would keep him from panicking like he had when Salvador woke him up; the short man had good intentions, but he was just so _ loud. _

Slowly, Krieg cracked his eye open, though he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, focus on her, his gaze constantly flicking around to the sides, never looking directly at her. 

“Are you alright?” Zer0 asked, lowering their own voice a good deal. 

He tilted his head up a bit and looked between the two. As he focused a bit more, there was some confusion in his eye. 

“The meatman is _ always _ fine.” He finally said, his voice raw and gravelly. 

“Oh, really? Is that why you punched me in the face when I tried to wake you up ‘cause you were screaming?” Salvador wasn’t one to beat around the bush, it seemed, getting right to the point. 

Krieg snapped his head to the side to try and look at Salvador, but the short man was in his blind spot. “I NEVER pain-scream!”

“Krieg,” Maya started again. “What were you dreaming about that scared you so much?” 

Sitting up, Krieg focused completely on Maya. She couldn’t see his entire expression, but it was clear he was just as confused as they were. “The wretched tendrils of gory brain fevers flit and dance in my eyes, but never do they show their true faces, never do they reveal themselves to my waking flesh!”

Salvador bristled at that, but he seemed more baffled than angry. “The fuck do you mean you don’t remember? I literally watched you wake up and look at me before punching me and trying to run off, cabrón!” 

“Wait, wait, wait, hold _ on _a second!” Maya said, holding her hands up to stop them before it devolved into a full-on argument. The two men and Zer0 looked at her expectantly. “What was the last thing you remember before you fell asleep, Krieg?” 

He stared down at the snow for several seconds before looking back up at her. “Hot fire and pretty blue.”

That must mean… he was watching the bonfire and looking at the sky, then. “And what was the first thing you remember after waking up just now?”

Krieg’s next pause was longer, his eye darting around at nothing in particular as he thought it through. “...The cold softness smothering the fire in my blood and freezing nipples off, the crashing descent of dead skin onto my burning flesh.”

Cold softness must’ve been the snow, so he remembered being facedown, and… dead skin must be the pelt. “So you… you woke up when… you woke up right before Salvador dropped the pelt onto you?”

Krieg nodded.

“And you don’t remember us waking you up? Nothing at all?”

He hesitated, but shook his head.

Salvador sighed and looked down in defeat. “...Right. Well, I’m gonna go feed the fire and get some breakfast going.” He stood and let the three of them be, shouting over to Axton and Gaige as he tossed some scrap onto the fire. 

The sad face on Zer0’s helmet disappeared, and they, too, stood and left, vanishing into the air. 

Maya sighed heavily. “Well, shit. I don’t know what to tell you, big guy. If it’s any consolation, you’re not the only one here with nightmares.” She said with a tired smile. They didn’t happen very often, but ever since she’d found out about the attempt on her life several years earlier, she’d had some rather terrifying recurring themes in her dreams.

Krieg blinked at her, the motion under the mask suggesting he was somewhat surprised to hear that. 

“I, em… yeah.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “There’s a couple different dreams I get sometimes. The monks built me up to be a god in the eyes of the people, to be this, uh, this all-powerful vengeful entity, and, um, after a while, it just… I don’t know. I kind of resented it, to be honest. They made me out to be this super terrifying… _thing, _almost like some kind of monster, y’know? And I started having dreams where they were, um… where the monks were right, I guess is the right way to phrase it. I try not to think about them too much.” Maya wasn’t entirely sure why she was even telling him any of that, it wasn’t like he particularly _cared, _right? 

His usual focused glare was back, but it was tinged with understanding. 

“Guess what I’m trying to say is that, uh… you’re not on your own out here. I think.” Maya reached out and patted his shoulder sympathetically. He startled a bit at the motion, but it was less jerky than the other times, more like he was expecting something worse. 

Maya stood and tilted her head to gesture towards the fire behind him. “C’mon, I’m sure some food’ll help. It always helps me, anyways.” She waited until Krieg stood and brushed the snow off of himself before joining the others around the fire. 

Axton had climbed into his bedroll and gone back to sleep, if the quiet snoring was any indication, while Gaige was sitting up in hers, scrolling through something on her echo. She looked up and watched Krieg as he sat back where he’d been earlier, but said nothing.

Just as he said, Salvador was rummaging around his storage, haphazardly pulling out and tossing various items to the ground by the fire. He poked at the fire with a long piece of scrap to tamp the coals down and form a bed, then set a cast iron pot on top of them. 

There was a sudden tap on her shoulder. Jumping and swearing in surprise, Maya looked up to see Zer0 standing to her left. When the hell did they get there? Agh, that shade of white they made their suit made them almost impossible to keep track of. 

“There is a group of/ Bullymongs outside the camp/ Care to hunt with me?” They asked with a question mark. 

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure.” She answered, uncertain why they would bother asking when that seemed like the type of situation they’d prefer to handle on their own. Maybe there were too many of them? Maya stood and zipped her jacket up, pulling her smg out as she followed them out of the bandit camp. 

They were silent until they reached the mouth of the skull entrance, pulling her aside and crossing their arms.

Ah. So they just wanted to talk. She mentally prepared herself for the inevitable “the weird man you found in the dirt needs to go” conversation. 

“I’m sure you have heard/ It as well: the voice in your/ Echo, the AI.”

Maya raised her eyebrows and blinked, surprised. “The voice…? Oh. Yes. The one that told us to go to Sanctuary. I thought I was the only one to hear it, at first, but Gaige and Salvador said they both heard it when they were looking for Hammerlock.” She first heard the voice on their way from Claptrap’s house to Hammerlock's, telling her to seek out Sanctuary. She hadn’t known anything about it at the time, but when they were discussing their course of action, she remembered Gaige mentioning it and brought it back up. 

Zer0 flashed a question mark. “Sanctuary? She/ Told me that we are alive/ Still for a reason.” They tapped their helmet with a fingertip, as if thoughtful. 

So the voice was speaking to each of them, but not always saying the same things? Why would it do that? Who were they?

“Why would it…? I don’t like this.” Maya told them. “We don’t know who this “AI,” as they claim they are, even is, or what their motive is, and she expects us to just trust her?” Brother Sophis and many of the other monks had all posited themselves as benevolent and kind teachers, mentors, even, when in reality they were greedy and manipulative, using her for their own gain, and no matter how friendly and inviting this “AI” sounded, that was exactly the rhetoric that the Order had used on her. She made no attempt to explain herself or her motives, and that set off more than a few alarms in Maya’s head. 

“I agree, we should/ Tread carefully where she is/ Concerned, just in case. She has given us/ No reason to trust her, yet/ She expects us to. And she speaks as if/ She can see what we’re doing/ I do not like it. It does not bode well/ Especially not with the/ Attempt on our lives.”

Maya nodded in agreement as they spoke. “Exactly. When we get an opportunity, we should talk to the others about it. If she’s talking to us all, then we need to be transparent with each other. We can’t afford any avoidable incidents happening because one of us didn’t mention something.”

“Then we are in full/ Agreement. I only hope/ The others are, too.”

Yeah, that might be a little bit of an issue. They all proved themselves reliable thus far, although the last what, two, three days? Was hardly enough time to completely judge the character of someone. Her gut was telling her it would _ probably _be fine, but now that they weren’t necessarily in a cooperate-or-die scenario, her overthinking was likely to keep her on edge until they completely proved their trustworthiness. 

To be fair, though, Axton hardly seemed clever enough to try and pull one over them, and Gaige was just a kid. Maya wasn’t entirely sure about the other two, though. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She finally said, not wanting to completely give into paranoia just yet.

“Now, then, about the/ Bullymongs: care for a bit/ Of competition?” Zer0 flashed a sly smiley face and a question mark.

Maya smirked. “Naturally. Shall we go for most kills?” 

“Of course.”

With that being said, the two started off towards the trail to the beach.

* * *

Much to Zer0’s disappointment, there had only been a handful of the belligerent animals, although they were blocking the path to the boat and straying a tad too close to the bandit camp for comfort. In the end, they were tied for kills, both of them walking away with six each. Zer0 had the bright idea to try and decapitate all of theirs, Maya could only assume as a way to make it more challenging, as the bastards could _ not _hold still. 

“If I may be so/ Bold, Maya, how did you come/ To know of your skills?” Zer0 asked as they made their way back up the trail.

Her skills? 

“My phaselocking, you mean?”

“Yes, as well as the/ Restorative power you/ Have demonstrated.” 

“Well…” she started, trying to recall back to when she’d first become aware of her abilities, or at least when she first started training. Hmm, when _ did _she find out about them?

“I think it was… I had my tattoos from birth, I think, as I was only a few months old when I was brought to the monks, and they said I had them when I was brought in, but I don’t think… Um… The first time I can recall ever using them was when I was about, uhh… about four or five years old.”

“What did you do?” They flashed a question mark.

“I lifted a rock and threw it at the head of a monk who wouldn’t leave me alone.”

Zer0 snickered into their hand, which was odd, because they really didn’t need to do that, considering their face was already covered. “How charming. And I/ Suppose this poor monk had it/ Coming, did he not?”

The two rounded the corner at the end of the trail, the bandit camp in full view once again. 

“Well, I later found out that that was brother Sophis, who at the time wasn’t yet in charge; he had just been assigned the duty of overseeing my care, if I remember correctly, as the nurse who was taking care of me at the time disappeared, and…” Maya trailed off; something about the memory stood out to her that didn’t seem right.

Wait a second. Sophis hadn’t been in charge at the time, but it wasn’t long after that the man took charge, not to mention nobody knew what happened to her nurse… 

“Wait… I think I may have just realized something.”

Zer0 flashed another question mark. “What is it?” A bit of concern made its way into their voice.

“I, uh, I… I think that Sophis… I think Sophis may have killed my… my nurse and the monks above him. Or at least had them killed. I'm not, um, _entirely _sure, but now that I'm thinking about it, it just seems, ah, I don't know, suspicious?” How had she not noticed that sooner? Actually, it made a _ little _ sense, as the events that led to his taking charge occurred when she was still young, but _ still! _

"Tell me more about/ This nurse of yours; just how did/ You come to know her?"

“When I was brought to the monks, they, uh, they had a local lady come in to take care of me, on account of how young I was. She was an older woman, I think, and stayed even after I learned to walk and talk. I guess it was just easier for a bunch of pious men to let her take care of me. But she disappeared suddenly one day, not long before I first used what would later turn out to be my phaselock.”

“And so you think that/ This Sophis was behind her/ Disappearance, yes?”

“Yes.” They stepped through the skull’s jaw, the campfire coming into view. “I don’t really remember it all that well because of how young I was, but I wouldn’t put it above Sophis to murder his way into power. He spent over 20 years manipulating me and the other monks, it’s hard for me to believe there wasn’t any kind of premeditation behind it all.” 

“Perhaps we should wait/ And finish this discussion/ Another time, Maya.”

That would probably be best. She wanted to think it all over a bit more. “Yeah, sure.”

As they approached, Salvador looked up from the fire, and the pot he was stirring, shouting when he saw them. 

“Welcome back! You are just in time, amigos.” Salvador hollered. He appeared to have taken care of his little injury from earlier, as the blood had been cleaned away, and there was a band-aid on his cheek, right underneath his left eye. Reaching down to the side of him, he picked up a pair of bowls and offered them to Maya and Zer0. The assassin politely declined and sat cross-legged a little ways away from the fire.

Accepting the bowl, made of thin blue metal, she took one of the pelts from her bed roll and laid it down over the ground, kneeling on it. 

“So, what’re you making?” She asked, watching as Salvador gingerly sprinkled something from a plastic bottle into the pot.

The man set the bottle down to his left, where a small assortment of utensils and the remains of several ingredients lay, and resumed his stirring, momentarily glancing over to throw her a smug grin. “Smells good, eh? It’s just an easy stew, but mi abuela taught old Chava here well, so don’t you worry about a thing!” He pulled the long metal spoon he was stirring with out and tapped it against the lip, setting it down and grabbing a metal ladle and extending his right hand towards Maya. “Here, let me see your bowl.”

She complied, watching as he scooped the stew into the bowl until it looked nearly ready to overflow, then dropped a spoon in and handed it back.

“Thank you, Salvador, it looks good.” The metal was hot, and she was forced to set it down in front of her before it burned her fingers. 

Salvador chuckled when she quickly pulled her hands back. “Hey, it’s hot.” 

“Thanks for the heads up.”

He threw her a thumbs up. “No problem!”

Maya looked down at her bowl, absently stirring the stew. It was just… it was strange looking back on her life on Athenas, looking back on growing up under the monks and realizing how… _ wrong _ a lot of it was. She could understand why she would believe much of it was normal, having no other frame of reference to compare her life to aside from shelves upon shelves of books from ages past, but it was still so _ frustrating. _

What even was the nurse’s name, again? Maya hadn’t thought about her in years, not since she was still an adolescent, and she found that she couldn’t recall her name. All she had was her kind, aged face looking down on her fondly as she held Maya on her lap, patiently reading with her out in the garden from a large children’s book. She knew the woman spent a great deal of time with her, had worked hard to teach Maya some basic, yet important, skills, but one day she was just… gone.

Maya couldn’t remember if anyone had cared, if anyone was worried or knew, all she understood was that the nurse was _ gone, _the one person in the abbey she felt any sort of connection or attachment to. No one ever mentioned it as the years went on, and anyone who would’ve realistically been able to remember her either refused to talk about it or feigned ignorance. At the time, she just chalked it up to grief, only now she wasn’t so sure. 

And a few days after her disappearance, brother Sophis was put in charge of her care. 

Maya didn’t know Sophis at the time. Not well, anyways; he had to have been around his early 30’s at the time, and she’d only known him in passing, someone she knew existed, but wouldn’t have been able to place in a crowd. 

She stopped stirring the stew and hesitantly stuck the tip of her pointer finger in to test the temperature. It was still hot, but pleasantly so. Licking the broth off her fingertip, she picked the bowl back up and tasted it.

Oh, damn! It had some kick to it, but she could handle a little bit of flavor. “Stew’s fuckin killer, Sal!” Maya told him through a mouthful, some of it accidentally spilling down her chin. 

“You’re damn right it is.” He replied, in the process of slurping his own bowl down. 

Wait, where were the others? Her bedroll was placed so that, while sitting as she was, she could clearly see the skull gate. Salvador was to her left, while Gaige had been on her right, Axton on Gaige’s right, and Krieg had been between the other two men. Gaige’s bedroll was empty, and Krieg was nowhere in sight, either.

Zer0 was off a few meters away, minding their own business and running a thin cloth along the blade of their sword. 

Axton, however, appeared to still be curled up in his bedroll, judging from the minute, yet steady rise and fall of the pelt on top. By the stars, how much was he gonna sleep?

Maya wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket and lowered her bowl into her lap, cradling it so the remaining stew warmed her fingers. 

“Hey, Salvador?”

The man grunted through a mouthful of stew, quickly choking it down. “Wassup, hermana?” A few drops of stew and a chunk of meat had fallen into his beard. 

“Where’s the other two at? I haven’t seen them since Zer0 and I got back, and I figured they’d be the first to try and get some food.” 

Salvador wiped the stew from his beard with a grimy chunk of cloth, pointing ahead of him, to Maya’s right, with his other hand. “Big boy’s been over there since you guys left. Looked real sad, too.” Turning to follow his gaze, she saw the blurry form of the man, and who she was assuming was Gaige to his left, sitting on the edge of something jutting out over the cliffside. “We figured it just had somethin’ to do with his rough wake-up, so the kid went over to see if she’d have better luck talkin’ with him than me and Ax.”

Maya sighed. “Yeah, that was…” 

“It could have been worse.” The man shook his head. “Oh! Speaking of…” He said suddenly, trailing off as he set his bowl on the ground and walked over to Axton’s bedroll, promptly leaning over to shake him awake. “Hey, amigo! Food’s done, if you’ve got enough beauty sleep.” 

The soldier popped out from under the pelts with a startled shout, looking around with a rushed expression on his face. “Fuck, Sal, you gotta stop _ doing _ that, man!” Axton sounded exasperated, leaning on his elbows and dropping his head back with a shaky sigh. “You don’t need to shake me, just say somethin’ and I’ll wake up. God _ damn.” _

Maya raised an eyebrow. “Light sleeper, huh?” 

He lifted his head to look at her, surprised to see her. “Somethin’ like that. Just one of the fun little side effects of bein’ in the military for ten years. If you can’t get your ass up, you get left behind. Or killed. Although, if you don’t wake up when the boss man tells ya, he’ll prolly kill ya’ before the enemy can.” 

“Whatever! Food’s done, now come get some before it gets cold.” Salvador waved away his concerns, grabbing and filling another bowl, then setting it down on one of the rocks surrounding the fire. 

Letting out a long whine, Axton crawled out of his bedroll and pulled his shoes on, then walked over to pick the bowl up. He tried to take a bite, only to shout and nearly drop it when the stew burned his tongue. 

“Oh, by the way, it’s hot.” Maya told him with a smirk. Salvador snickered. 

The poster boy rolled his eyes at them and leaned into his echo, dropping his spoon into the bowl and pressing a button. “Hey, nerd, come get some soup before Sal over here eats it all.” That would be Gaige, of course. 

Sure enough, about a minute or so after he said that, Maya saw Gaige stand and make her way back to the fire, Krieg following a ways behind her. 

“Not sure who needs the calories more, the kid or the big boy.” Salvador muttered as he scooped stew into two more bowls. 

It seemed that Axton was too impatient to wait for his stew to cool off, nor try to cool it himself; he was simply shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth, grimacing and fanning his face every time. 

“Dude! Just wait for it to not be hot, dumbass!” Gaige told him when she reached them, accepting one of the bowls from Salvador, then moving to stand somewhere on Axton’s left, facing the fire. The teen had the hood of her jacket pulled up, and at some point had put on a pair of gloves. When did she get those? Did she already have them, or did she get them from the QCS? Maya couldn’t remember if she had or not. 

Axton choked down a mouthful while glaring over at her. “Oh, piss off, it ain’t the temperature, it’s goddamn _ spicy, _man.”

Salvador let out a bark of laughter. “_ Spicy? _Ohha! You poor thing!”

The soldier shot him a glare as well, but his expression faltered, becoming more unsure. “...What?” He asked after Salvador’s laughter continued and trailed off. “I just don’t like spicy stuff that much, alright?” 

Maya chuckled into her stew as she watched the scene unfold.

Gaige cautiously blew on a spoonful, then tasted it. “MMM! Bitch, this ain’t even that spicy!” She shoveled a few more bites into her mouth. “It’s fuckin’ delicious, though.”

Salvador pointedly looked at Axton, who just rolled his eyes and decided it was better to suffer in silence. 

Krieg finally lumbered over to join them around the fire, the pelt still wrapped around him. Guess he was finally getting cold, Maya figured. Took him long enough. Honestly, she didn’t understand how he could stand to hang around with his entire torso out like that, completely unbothered. 

Accepting the last bowl from Salvador, he sat on the ground between Gaige and Maya, silently pushing the mask up. 

“Hey, big boy!” Salvador called over to him, scraping the last of the stew from his bowl. “Tell me, how spicy is it?”

Krieg looked up, slowly chewing on a bite for several seconds in consideration before answering. 

“No!” Was all he said, and resumed eating without another word. 

Once again, Salvador erupted into a fit of cackling, joined by Gaige, and eventually Maya. Axton could do nothing but shake his head and mutter in disbelief. Behind the soldier, she could see Zer0 watching them all with a LOL over their helmet. 

Once the mirth died down a little, Zer0 stood and joined them. “We should plan on how/ We’ll get across the bridge, or/ Find another way.”

Gaige made a loud _ MMM! _ sound through a mouthful of stew. “Ok, so I checked out the bridge while you guys were killin’ those ‘mongs, and it looked like those bandits built a ramp into the ground in front of the bridge.” She set her bowl on the ground and held her arms out in front of her to mimic the shape of the bridge. “So when it got destroyed-” she pulled her left arm back from the right. “-They popped the ramp up-” she tilted her hand up. “-And drove their car over the gap.” The teen finished with a dramatic swoop of her robotic hand over the top of her right. 

A ramp, huh? Well, that would certainly make their lives easier; the only issue would be getting them to go fast enough to clear the gap. Maya craned her neck to look between Gaige and Axton, trying to see if she could gauge the distance from where she sat.

Damn, she was too far away, and the other two were in the way. Oh, well, if the bandits were able to do it, then certainly they could, too. 

“Then we just need to get a car, won’t we.” She pointed out, setting her empty bowl down and standing. “I’m gonna go check out that Catch-A-Ride, see if I can’t get it to work.”

“You need any help? Those things are notoriously bitchy, and it’s kinda difficult to operate if you don’t know what you’re doin’.” Salvador told her. 

“Uhhhh, actually, yeah, sure, lets go.”

Carefully stepping over the bedrolls, Maya made her way around the fire towards the skull, then turned and waited for Salvador to pull his beany on and join her. 

“So, um, how long does it take for it to, ah…” Maya trailed off, not entirely sure how to phrase her question.

“To digistruct a car?”

“Yeah.”

“Eh, it usually doesn’t take more than a minute or two. The more complex the car, the longer it takes, but the longest I’ve ever seen was about five minutes. We don’t need anything that big, though.”

Just as Gaige said, there was a large chunk of thick metal propped up on supports rising out of the snow, the ground underneath it frozen dirt, indicating that it hadn’t been raised at least since before it snowed. 

The panel for the Catch-A-Ride was powered off, but when Salvador hit one of the buttons under the screen, a warning message appeared. 

A recording of a hicky young man’s voice played. “Whoa, unauthorized user up in my grill! You tryin’ to hack my Catch-A-Ride?! Uncool bro, uncool.” It said. 

“Goddamn it!” Salvador kicked the panel.

Maya scowled at the panel, crossing her arms in annoyance when she felt some weird crackling sensation in her head, followed by the sound of her echo connecting to something. 

_ Oh, not this again, _she thought, recognizing the sign of that “AI.”

“It would seem that the man who runs these, Scooter, has locked this station to prevent the bandits from using it.” She said, causing both Maya and Salvador to jump, despite having a moment of forewarning; the static in her ears was just… it felt _ weird. _

“Hey, who the hell are you, and why are you contacting us?” Maya demanded. If this “AI” was going to be directing them, then she’d at least like to know what their angle was.

“Don’t worry, I’m a friend.” She replied, a smile evident in her voice. “I'm reading an inactive Hyperion ‘bot in the Bloodshot camp. If you can attach its interface adapter to the Catch-A-Ride, I can hack the machine and get you a car.” 

Salvador looked affronted. “What the hell do you _ mean, _ chica? You can’t just _ say _that and expect us to take your word for it!

“I’m sorry, but that’s all I can say for now. Pandora is a violent and dangerous place, but I will do my best to help you when I can.”

He tried to ask her more, but she refused to respond, the fuzz in Maya’s head disappearing. 

“Well…” she started, planting her fists on her hips and sighing. “Guess we can either see what Gaige can do, or find this Hyperion robot.” Maya really didn’t want to do what this “AI” was telling them to do, however, at the moment, their hands were a little tied. They really did need the Catch-A-Ride to work if they wanted to get over the gap, but then again, Gaige was a self-professed mechanic and hacker, and the boat still had a decent amount of fuel left. “...Or we can take the boat and find another place to dock.”

“Pffffah, fuck _ that! _I’m sorry, hermana, but I ain’t gettin back on them waters if I can avoid it.”

“Right. Let’s go tell the others, then.” 

When they returned to the fire, they found Axton, once again, back in his bedroll, going through something on his echo. Gaige had draped herself along Krieg’s back, hanging over his shoulder and going on about some game while he finished his stew. Zer0 was nowhere to be seen. 

“You guys hear any disembodied voices in your heads the last few minutes?” Salvador asked as they approached. 

“He never shuts up!” Krieg called over without looking up. 

Gaige stopped whatever she was saying to throw Krieg a weird look, then stood and faced Maya. “Uh, no? Why, did that AI say something again?”

“The Catch-A-Ride is locked. She claimed if we find a Hyperion ‘bot that’s supposedly nearby and attach its adapter, she can hack into it.” She explained, hoping the teen would volunteer to demonstrate the skills she boasted of. 

Just as she expected, Gaige’s eyes went wide with excitement. “Aw, hell no! I could _ totally _hack into it! We don’t need no Hyperion AI doin shit for us!”

“Wait, what?” Axton looked up from his echo. “How do you know she’s a Hyperion AI?”

“_ Because, _ dude, AI’s generally can’t operate outside of the network they’re framed into unless they’ve got, like, certain high-tech equipment.” She turned and leaned against Krieg’s back again, crossing her arms and gesturing with her robotic hand. “And the fact that she _ specified _ to go to an adapter on a Hyperion ‘bot means that she’s connected to it in some way and can only access the Catch-A-Ride through that specific adapter. Unless it’s the only adapter nearby, which it’s _ not, _by the way, ‘cause I’ve got a few stashed in Deathtrap’s storage, and he’s got a homemade one on ‘im.”

“How often is this “generally,” exactly?” The soldier asked.

“Almost always. I mean, there’s _ always _ gonna be exceptions, but it’s not, like, _ super _likely, y’know?” 

"So you don't know for sure, is what you're saying."

"I- Yeah, sure."

Maya was starting to get tired of standing around. “Well, can you do it or not? I don’t know about you guys, but I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.” Gaige replied with a wave of her hand, summoning Deathtrap as she made her way out of the camp to the Catch-A-Ride. 

Sighing, she turned and followed the teen. 

The wait for her to hack the Catch-A-Ride was a tedious one, having nothing to do but wait, so Maya took to inspecting the vending machines by the panel. The ammunition vendor was, of course, out of stock, while the medicine vendor didn’t really have anything they didn’t already have, or need. 

She was about to ask what was taking so long when Gaige shouted in triumph. The panel spouted some pre-recorded message about authorization being granted and something about a taco. Gaige immediately turned to her echo to tell the others to pack their shit up.

“Aw, damn! How the hell does this thing even work? It’s like a toddler designed this, I swear.” It would seem that Salvador wasn’t joking about them being difficult to operate. 

The three men soon joined them, Axton stretching and yawning as they went under the skull. 

Salvador offered to show Gaige how it worked, and after a minute or so of fiddling with the buttons, a pair of cars began digistructing on the platforms.

“Wait, two? Why’re you getting two?” Axton asked. 

Gaige glanced over her shoulder, then focused back on the cars. “It’s the one that’s best suited for the terrain and weather, but there’s only three seats in it, so we gotta split up. 

“...Oh.”

Within another minute, the cars were finished; two shiny new ATV runners, fully equipped with mounted gunner seats, for some reason. 

“Do I wanna know why they’ve got giant guns mounted on top?” She asked Salvador. 

He waved away her concern. “You’ll see soon enough, don’t worry. Now, who here, besides, me, actually knows how to drive?” 

Both Gaige and Axton raised a hand, although Gaige did so with much more enthusiasm and a glint in her eyes that said she was more eager than experienced. Maya said nothing, since she’d never even been behind the wheel of anything, and neither did Krieg. 

Turning her head back to face the panel, she saw Zer0 casually leaning against the side of a car and jumped slightly. When the hell did they get there?

...Okay!” Salvador said with a clap of his hands. “Ax, you take the one on the right with Krieg and Gaige, and I’ll take the other with Maya and Zer0.”

“What? Why?” Axton looked miffed at the suggestion, or maybe just at Salvador telling him what to do. 

“These runners are light, amigo, you get too much weight in one, and it won’t go right. If you’re drivin’, then you should have big boy here in the passenger, and the kid in the turret. I can’t have him in my car, ‘cause the both of us plus another would be too much.”

The poster boy opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, but he could only stare for a moment as he considered the words before acquiescing. “Fine, fine.”

Walking around the car on the left, she found Zer0 already seated in the turret, and climbed into the passenger seat. The first thing she noticed was that there was no windshield, and the second was that there were no seatbelts. That _ was _how cars were supposed to be built, right? Well, not that it mattered. 

“Just hold on tight to the frame, and you should be fine, amiga.” Salvador said as he slid into the driver’s seat. “Hey, Ax, you ever driven one of these before?”

Maya’s echo crackled as a connection was established. “Eh, kind of. The controls are the same as some of the shit I drove with Dahl. Must be based on one of their rigs. But yeah, I got it.”

It took a few minutes of lining up, but eventually Axton drove his over the gap, landing on the other side with a chorus of whooping from him, Krieg, and Gaige, followed soon by Salvador’s car. 

The other side of the bridge led to a series of tunnels running through frozen caves, though they were linear enough for them to navigate without issue.

“Hey, How far away is this “Sanctuary” place, anyways?” Axton asked over the echo.

Maya tuned hers in. “It’s further in through the mountains. We’ll need to drive through a pass and down to the valley to get to it, so it’ll be a few hours. Why, do you need a map or something?”

He groaned in frustration. “Man, come _ on! _No, I should be good for now, but the second I lose feeling in my fingers, I’m pulling over, ya hear?”

“Sounds good.” Her echo clicked as the connection ended. 

Hurry up and wait, huh? It was gonna be a cold drive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Justification for the ending is I think it's ridiculous for them to just accept everything Angel says at face value, as if Maya, of all people, would be so willing to trust someone she doesn't know after LITERALLY having just escaped the Order.


	14. Crimson Orientation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The vault hunters finally make it to Sanctuary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long, guys! I spilled coffee all over my laptop during an all-nighter, and had to wait around two weeks for it in the shop just for them to tell me it was completely fried. Oh well! I also started playing Fallout 4 for the first time in the interim (if anyone reading this follows me on tumblr, you probably are well aware lol) and got a little hyperfocused on that, but for now I'm stuck with an admittedly shitty borrowed laptop, so hopefully I'll be back up to updating regularly :D

Standing hunched over the table in front of him, Roland sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had received word from Lilith that Jack had sent another one of his trains to the southern shelf, only this time the poor bastards on board managed to survive. Whether it was by a sheer stroke of luck or some kind of divine providence, no one could say. 

But that was around an entire 24 hours earlier. According to Lilith’s informant among the Ripper bandits, the vault hunters, without any obvious prompting, decided to make their way to Sanctuary, and had already been well underway on their journey from the glacier. From the southernmost dock, it was a several hour drive through the mountains, and then another hour or two through the valley to reach Sanctuary, and if his math was correct, they should’ve already arrived, provided there weren't any setbacks along the way. Provided they didn't leave one ambush only to walk right into another.

He didn’t have the time or resources to send out another party to intercept or search for the hunters, but neither could he afford to sit around and wait on raised hopes. 

Once Reece had returned with the power core they managed to scavenge, he’d sent the raiders off to get some well-deserved rest before retreating upstairs to the meeting room. It had been well over a normal day since he’d last gotten any sleep, but Roland was determined to wait until he knew whether those vault hunters were alive or not, and if they made it to Sanctuary whole; they needed the extra bodies badly, and training civilians, former workers and bandits, and anyone who could pick up a gun would only get them so far. 

They were fighting a losing battle. The Crimson Raiders needed soldiers, they needed _ fighters, _people who knew what they were doing, people who knew going in exactly what they were getting themselves into and were still willing to make the sacrifice. It was reckless to put so much faith in a group of strangers he’d never met, but if it meant they might gain a few allies who could help them hurt Hyperion, even just a little bit, then it would be worth the risk. 

Of course, Roland knew first-hand what it was like to arrive on Pandora, what it was like to step off the bus with the promise of the vault fresh in his heart, only to find the world ravaged by the corporations. There was no denying what was surely motivating those vault hunters, what had motivated himself and his own companions. He only needed to find a way to convince them that helping them was worthwhile. 

Lilith’s informant hadn’t exactly been clear on what kind of people the vault hunters were, nor could he decide if there were five or six. That was the most confusing part, to be honest, listening to the man ramble on about an angry Headstone mutant tailing the vault hunters like some kind of lost dog. 

Well, hopefully they would put the bastard out of its misery before they inadvertently led it to Sanctuary; the last thing they needed was a rambling lunatic running amok through the streets and causing a panic. 

Sighing a second time, Roland stared at the map in front of him. Hyperion had yet to advance up towards the mountains, and while the Bloodshots and other bandit clans were a drain on their attention - even with Lilith keeping them distracted - the trail of destruction Hyperion would leave behind in their extermination would be catastrophically worse than any raid that Flamesteak could set on them. If they could keep Hyperion out the mountains long enough for the Raiders to neutralize the Bloodshot threat, then the other clans would be far more likely to leave them alone. Hopefully.

A sudden noise from his echo distracted him; lieutenant Davis was trying to contact him. 

“Hey, Roland, there’s a bunch of people here at the gate asking to be let in.”

Standing up straight, Roland snapped to attention, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten. He half-hoped it was the vault hunters, but dreaded it at the same time. “Put me through to them.” 

“Right away, sir.”

A moment later, his echo crackled again as he was connected to a frequency with six other echos.

“This is the commander of the Crimson Raiders speaking.” He began. “State your business.”

“It’s a pleasure to speak with you, commander.” The voice that responded belonged to a woman, firm and professional in tone. Her greeting had the rehearsed sound of someone who’d said it a thousand times and didn’t care anymore how flat the delivery was. “My name is Maya. I came to Pandora seeking the vault, and myself, along with a few others, heard the Crimson Raiders were fighting Hyperion. We were hoping we might, ah, see about working alongside you guys. If you don’t mind.”

So it was the vault hunters, and not only that, it would seem that they were willing, at least, to cooperate. Good, that meant Roland probably didn’t need to spend as much time convincing them as he’d anticipated. “Ah, so you’re the vault hunters I’ve been hearing all this chatter about.” Through the video feed from Lt. Davis’ echo, Roland could see two snow runners, one in front of the other. Although he couldn’t see all of the vault hunters - the front car partially blocked two of the seats on the back runner - the ones he could see seemed to match what Lilith had described. 

It was a risk to just let them all through without any kind of screening or test of loyalty, but his gut was telling him to trust them. It might have just been wishful thinking, hell, it could’ve just been the Raiders’ desperation finally catching up to him, but he had a feeling this was one decision he wasn’t likely to regret anytime soon. 

He hadn’t had many of those lately, and the Raiders were long overdue some good news. 

“Let them through.” 

“At once, sir.” Davis moved from his post at the gate to raise the barricade, waving the cars through once it was clear. “Head up to the road, then talk to Private Jessup at the gate, he'll let you into the city.”

The connection to the vault hunters and Davis cut out. Tapping on his echo again, Roland contacted another one of the raiders at the city gate and ordered them to bring the vault hunters to Crimson HQ once they were inside. Now all he had to do was wait. 

Pushing himself away from the table with another tired sigh, Roland paced back and forth a few times before making his way over to the coffee pot in the corner. The pot was still half full, so he tried to distract himself from the waiting, and his heavy eyes, by pouring a cup.

Having been brewed instead of digistructed, the coffee required traditional creamer, or other additives, if it was gonna have any kind of pleasant taste, but the Raiders didn’t have many options. He grabbed a cracked ceramic mug from the rack next to the pot and filled it close to the brim, taking a tentative sip to see how hot it was.

It wasn’t bad; the brew wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t exactly fresh, either, leaving it delicately tepid. 

At one point in time, he would’ve spat it out rather than swallow even a drop. The black sludge was bitter and foul, and if he put his teeth together, he could taste a few grounds. Back at New Haven, during his own search for the vault, Brick and Lilith had teased him for preferring his coffee sweet, for taking every opportunity he could to stock up on ingredients to make the Pandoran sludge a bit more tolerable. 

Now, though, after years of rationing under both Atlas and the scarceness of Pandora, Roland found he didn’t much care at the moment. Coffee was coffee, and he had people looking up to him.

Returning to the table, he took a few more generous sips as he faced the entryway, watching with anticipation. It wouldn’t be long, but now that he was expecting them, the seconds passed like hours.

He set the mug down on the tabletop and exhaled heavily through his nose, going over what he planned to say once they arrived. Obviously, he’d have to send them out on a test or two to prove that they weren’t just a couple of Hyperion lackeys, for formality's sake. He also had to consider how he could integrate them into the Raiders. Vault hunters or no, they were still people, and he couldn’t allow himself to play favorites and give them special treatment just because of some self-professed title. 

Once he had assessed their individual capabilities, he could then accurately assign them to where they would be the most useful, whether that was on the front lines, doing supply runs, or just helping Zed over at his clinic. 

Speaking of Zed, he’d have to remember to send them over for a routine medical assessment once they were done. 

The sounds of Tannis’ shrieking from downstairs let him know that they’d arrived, finally. Roland lifted the mug back up and choked the rest of the burnt coffee down, hurrying to wipe his mouth and set the cup down before they came upstairs. 

The sounds of low chatter grew as the vault hunters ascended the narrow stairs, single file, and piled into the room in front of the table.

First was a woman, and judging by the commanding way she held herself, Roland took it she was the same person he had spoken to previously, Maya. She had the same pale skin and eastern features as Lilith, and if he had to guess, she was probably from the same planet, or at least one of its cousins. Either way, she was fairly tall for someone of her build, but it was impossible to tell her true strength under the layers she wore. Next was a very short, yet incredibly stocky, bearded latino man with a wild look in his face that screamed Pandoran Native, Born And Raised, and that meant he’d either be a valuable asset or a major hindrance. He was also dressed for the weather, although to a lesser degree. 

Following him was another man, some average fratty white boy of average build and height, in Dahl fatigues. A few chevrons in his head indicated his rank of Sgt. first class. A former soldier, huh? If Roland knew his Dahl soldiers, and he liked to think he did, having him around would benefit them if they could utilize him properly, what with all the Dahl tech still lingering from the occupation, not to mention it had been a while since they’d taken on anyone new with actual experience.

Then there was… was that a child? No, she looked too old to be a child, but too young to be a fully mature adult. A teenager, then. What was someone so young doing there? 

Behind the teenager was someone Roland could only assume was some kind of special ops soldier, or maybe one of the many loose-cannon bounty hunters and mercenaries that called the galaxies home. Unlike the others, they were covered completely from head to toe in some kind of specialized white suit, their face obscured by a very shiny helmet.

And finally, behind them all was… 

Good god_. _

Roland was careful to hide his reaction as the vault hunters piled in. His brows knit together and eyes widened ever so slightly, his mouth just barely opening as he pulled in an inaudible gasp of shock. A hulking man in need of a meal or two stepped inside the room, lingering uncomfortably in the doorway like he was trying to hide, although the extra head he had over everyone else meant he stuck out like a sore thumb.

God _ damn, _Lilith’s informant wasn’t kidding about the mutant following the vault hunters, but this was… the man was certainly dressed like one of the poor Headstone sods, with his orange pants and his metal form-fitting mask, but if Roland’s memory served him right, then there was no possible way this man could’ve been from Headstone Mine. 

His abnormal size and strength - a few centimeters shy of two meters and built like a brick shithouse - coupled with the bandages around his arms stained with blood and what was clearly _ slag, _ not to mention the numerous scars and obvious malnutrition, and finally the large metal braces that he’d come to recognize as part of the equipment used in slag experimentation, this was no Headstone mutant created from the vault key’s influence: he was a Hyperion test subject, he just had to be. 

Well, then. What an interesting collection of people. Just when he thought Pandora could surprise him no more, that he’d seen it all, the universe always managed to throw him a curve-ball. 

Roland schooled his face as they finished shuffling in, spreading out and glancing around. He hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and cleared his throat. “So, you’re Jack’s newest would-be victims, huh?” There were a few looks of surprise among them. “A contact out on the southern shelf told us how you guys managed to take down Captain Flynt and cripple his men.” He explained, slowly stepping around the table to stand before them. “I’m impressed. Name’s Roland. I used to be a vault hunter like you, until I formed the Crimson Raiders.” Roland offered a hand out for one of them to shake, hoping the leader of the little entourage would reveal themselves.

The woman in blue stepped forward, taking his hand and shaking. Her grip was firm and formal, down to business and serious. “As I stated before, I’m Maya. With me are Salvador-” she released his hand and gestured to the short man, who gave a jubilant wave and smile. “Gaige-” the teen gave an enthusiastic “wassup!” and flashed her own grin, tossing up a pair of devil’s horns with one hand. “Axton-” the Dahl soldier gave a half-hearted smirk and a casual salute. “Zer0-” the person in white said nothing and made no movement, but a red holograph displayed a smiley face in front of their helmet. “…And Krieg.” The poor mutated man, still standing in the doorway, crossed his arms and grunted. The single eye peering through the mask eyed Roland, although he couldn't decide if it was with suspicion or disdain.

“It’s good to finally meet you all. Ever since Jack and Hyperion started looking for the vault here on Pandora, he’s been luring every vault hunter he could find out to the southern shelf and leavin’ ‘em to die. It’s a relief to know that at least someone survived for once. I assume that’s why you're here, isn’t it, to get back at Hyperion.”

The short man, Salvador, stepped forward to stand next to Maya. “Aye, that’s right! That handsome bastard has got a date with my fist.” To emphasize the point, he raised a fist and smacked it against a palm, producing a loud and succinct _ smack _sound. There were a few mutters of agreement among them. 

Roland let out a small sigh through his nose, relieved that their luck had finally turned in their favor, even if it wasn’t in the form of an army. He knew first-hand just how much of a difference a few people could make, so long as he knew how to make use of their skills, whatever they may be.

“Good, the Raiders could use some new blood. However, there are a few things to do before you can officially call yourself raiders.” It wasn’t anything personal, but after a few mishaps in the past, there were a few formalities before he, or the other raiders, would fully trust any potential new recruits, no matter how much he wanted to.

Off in the corner, the Dahl soldier Axton made a face like he was trying to figure something out. “You guys are awful trusting of us, considering we’re just a buncha randos that popped in outta the snow. Do ya always let every hapless bastard in at their word, or are you making an exception 'cause some hick watched us kick some dude's ass? Or maybe you're just that desperate for fresh meat." He put his weight onto one leg and shoved a hand into the pocket of his jacket. “What’s the deal, hoss?"

So, he wasn’t just another grunt goin’ with the flow. That was good to know. The question was, was he a thinker or one of those “fuck the authority” bastards? He could work with a thinker, but a loose cannon could spell danger, and not just for Hyperion and the bandits. 

“The deal, huh?” Roland shifted his weight to the side, matching the soldier’s stance. “That informant I mentioned? He was stationed out on the southern shelf to watch the tracks for Hyperion and call in when they dumped more vault hunters. Jack knows that a few good soldiers could potentially ruin everything he’s built up, which means that anyone he wants dead, the Crimson Raiders want alive. And if Jack wants all of you-” Roland gestured vaguely to the group before him, “-Dead, then there’s a reason why, and I’ll be damned if I let that kind of potential go to waste.” Axton said nothing, but he had a look of reluctant understanding as he listened. “That, and Jack apparently put out some pretty heavy bounties for you guys once he realized you survived. I know for a fact that you guys aren't exactly on Handsome Jack's Christmas list this year. That doesn't mean we're best buds, though, so keep that in mind. That good enough for you, soldier?"

Axton screwed his face up like he wanted to argue, or maybe make some dumbass remark, but the teenager Gaige had whipped around from where she was inspecting the coffee machine, staring wide-eyed until Roland finished speaking. “What, _ again? _I thought we were already wanted by Hyperion?”

“They probably just/ Added to our already/ Existing bounties.” The mysterious person in white said, arms crossed and tapping on their helmet with an index finger. A glowing emoji of a person shrugging floated in front of their head.

So they were already wanted when they arrived. Roland briefly wondered what “crimes” Hyperion pulled outta their asses to pin on them, as they had also recently updated Roland’s own bounty. “Yeah, that sounds like something they’d do. I have to ask, though, what happened on that train? Normally, it just stops by and dumps the bodies; we've never seen one derailed before."

Maya, who had been eyeing the few books lining the table on one wall, turned to answer. “We realized we’d walked into a trap on our way to the southern shelf. Hyperion had packed the cars with ‘bots trying to kill us, and when we finally got through them, we found one of the cars had been rigged with dynamite.”

“It was a _ lot _of fuckin’ dynamite, too.” Axton added. “And from the way it was rigged, I’d say it’d been set to blow once we opened that door, prolly some kinda “last resort” in case we weren’t shot to hell, if I had to guess. We had about, ehhh, ten or 15 seconds after we opened the door to haul ass as far away down the train as we could before the fireworks started.”

Roland raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you guys are lucky to be alive, then. Tell you what, you guys stop by our resident, ah, _ doctor, _and let him check you guys out, make sure you’re all good, then rest up a bit and we’ll see about initiating you guys. Sound good?” 

“Oh, um, thank you, but-” Maya started, only to be cut off by Salvador.

At Roland’s mention of Zed, Salvador got a suspicious glint in his eyes, the corners crinkling a bit in contained mirth. “Where’s this “doctor” of yours at, jefe? Can’t say any of us are cozy to your fine city’s setup.”

“Talk to Raleigh downstairs and he’ll show you to Zed’s.” Roland gave them a slight nod towards the door and returned to where he’d been standing at the table. As they all turned to leave, he called after them. “Oh, and vault hunters-”

They turned back to look at him.

“-It’s good to have you with us.”

The vault hunters murmured their responses, except for Maya and the mutant. “Likewise. We look forward to working with the Raiders.” She said, holding out her arm to shake his hand once more, then turned to follow the others back down the stairs.

Once they were out of sight, Roland collapsed into a chair to his right, hung his head back, and sighed heavily. 

Was he a damned fool for trusting them so readily? Probably. It went against everything his time in the Lance taught him, but he was quickly running out of options, not to mention soldiers and supplies. He didn’t anticipate a sudden shift in the tides, but maybe, just maybe, the Raiders’ luck would finally turn their way and give them an edge. His gut told him it was the right thing to do, though that could've just as well have been the exhaustion. 

Goddamn, he needed some sleep. 

* * *

The sound of an incoming call distracted Zed from his work. Well, it wasn't really pressing work, just organizing some of the files in his office while he waited for the floors in the examination room to dry; he'd been hard-pressed to keep the damned place clean, what with the near-constant train of injured raiders, civilians, and prisoners wandering in and out, not to mention the complete lack of sanitary products at his disposal. Heh, he was lucky he was able to get clean water running through the taps, but he'd take what he could get.

Setting a folder of medical records aside, Zed leaned over his echo to see the face of Roland, the old and grainy photo grinning up at him as he pressed the button to let the call through. "You've reached the office of one Dr. Zed, what can I do fer ya?" He asked, knowing damn well he didn't need to be so formal, but enjoying the comedy all the same. 

"Hey, Zed. I got a couple of potential recruits comin' your way that need to get looked at ASAP. You busy?" Right down to business, clean and simple. Zed appreciated his dedication to the role of commander, though he'd be lying if he said he didn't miss the days when he was just another foolhardy adventurer, calling up to shoot the shit just as often as he did to ask for a check-up. No matter, he had a lot on his plate. They all did.

Zed patted the sides of a small stack of papers, getting them aligned before setting them aside. "Not particularly. Must be pretty important if it's you callin' me up instead of the raiders at the gates."

"They're vault hunters."

"...Come again?" Zed was taken aback. Vault hunters? He must have heard wrong, all the vault hunters on Pandora were either scattered to the winds, dead in the snow, or the guts of a skag. "It sounded to me like you said you were sendin' _ vault hunters _ my way."

"I am. Guess Jack's plans finally failed for once." 

Well, shit, now wasn't that a little stroke of luck for the Raiders. His office could wait another two or three hours, he supposed. "What can ya tell me 'bout 'em? How many are you sendin' over?" He'd need to prep the examination room, and it was always easier when he knew what to expect. "They ain't dyin' yet, are they?"

"No, no, 'course not." Roland said quickly. "Not that I could see, at least. There's six of 'em, and I'm pretty sure one is an escaped Hyperion test subject. Look, I hate to cut this short, but I've got some things to do. If they're well enough to go free, tell them to head over to the Murtaugh house, and I'll see 'em again when the sun comes up."

The Murtaugh house? Zed absently wondered why Roland was givin’ 'em that empty shack instead of tellin' them to hit the barracks. Not that it mattered, the raiders weren't required to stick to the barracks, anyhow. "You got it, boss. Catch ya later." Zed listened to Roland bid him goodbye, then cut the connection.

Zed had been hoping for a reason to procrastinate the cleaning of his office, and it looked like he finally found one. Making his way downstairs to the examination room, he was careful to not step on the tile that was still wet. The room had been thoroughly scrubbed clean of blood, dirt, and other unpleasant fluids, and he didn't really wanna get it filthy again before it could even dry; depending on the state them vault hunters were in, though, he might not have a damn say in the matter. 

Either way, it looked like they hadn't arrived yet. Zed walked over to the door to verify it was still unlocked, then opened it just enough to let a thin strip of light in. 

Unless they decided to take their sweet time, it wouldn't take them too long to get to his clinic, assuming they were coming from HQ. To pass the time so he wasn't just hangin' around twiddling his thumbs, the doctor made sure he had all the tools he needed for a general examination, should the need arise, arranging them on a tray in the far corner where the exam table stood.

How many did Roland say? Six? And apparently one was an escaped Hyperion experiment.

A slag guinea pig, eh? Christ, as if dealing with the poor bastards who came in contact with slag _ accidentally _was bad enough. Hell, even the ones who voluntarily exposed themselves to it weren't nearly as bad as the ones unfortunate enough to get caught by Hyperion. For all his years of experience, expertise, and equipment, Zed still didn't have an effective or reliable way to treat slag exposure. No one knew all of what the hell that shit did to people, not even Hyperion, and certainly no one knew how to help the afflicted; he could treat the symptoms, sure, but there was no way to get at the root of the problem. None that Zed was aware of, anyways.

Well, shit, hopefully the poor bastard wasn't so far gone that he couldn't be reasoned with. Lord knew Pandora had enough of those to go around. 

As Zed finished rolling the tray of tools out, he heard the sound of several people approaching the building. From what he could make out, it sounded like that kid, Raleigh, and a pair of unfamiliar voices; the first voice sounded male, while the other sounded like it belonged to someone much younger, joking with their raider escort. 

That was a good sign; it wasn’t uncommon for his charges to come in screaming or dying, so the change-around was welcome. 

Having nothing more to do but wait, Zed turned and sat in a chair against the wall adjacent to the entryway and leaned back, crossing his arms, watching. The strip of light was interrupted by someone standing in its way. For several moments, the vaulters hovered outside and bantered with Raleigh, the two unknown voices joined by a distinctly lady-like voice and-

Oh, that sly bastard!

Zed scrunched his face in surprise and confusion while he processed that _ yes, _he wasn’t just hearing things. Raleigh bid the vault hunters good luck and took his leave, the door swinging open as the one person Zed hadn’t expected to see sauntered inside.

“HEY, where you at, Zed, you motherfucker?!” 

Salvador goddamn Belmonte. What in the hell was _ he _doin’ in Sanctuary? As the man strode through the entryway, he looked about the room, dramatically swinging his head and shoulders around in search of the doctor. 

Zed stood and stepped away from the wall to approach Salvador. Behind him, several others step inside. “Right here, ya feral bastard.” 

Much as he expected, Salvador greeted him with a loud boom of laughter and a crushing bear hug that lifted Zed a few centimeters off the floor. “I, oof-” Zed started, the air effectively squeezed from his chest. 

“I betcha never thought you’d see _ ME _this far south, eh?” Salvador said as he set Zed back down and backed off. 

Straightening his coat out, Zed took stock of the man in front of him. It had been a good couple years since he’d last seen him, but he hadn’t changed much; he’d aged a bit, but he was still sporting that god-awful belt buckle and boots, his hair was still dyed that same deep blue, he was still the burliest motherfucker this side of the galaxy, and he still had that wide and wild grin splitting him from ear-to-ear.

The last time he’d seen him, the man had been shaking off the last of the ghosts from his past, and that was… hell, six or seven years, at least. If Zed remembered right, Salvador had said something about never skipping out on his family again, though surely he must’ve had a good reason to be in _ Sanctuary _, of all places.

“Well, you’re damn right.” Zed rolled a shoulder around in its socket and placed his hands on his waist, cracking his spine. “Never thought you’d take up vault huntin’ either. But I see you haven’t stopped tryin’ to break my back. How’s Pandora been treatin’ ya the last few years?” He asked with a degree of sternness in his voice, but it was overshadowed by the fondness built on years of history.

“Hey, Sal, you know this dude?” One of the other vault hunters crowding the entryway spoke up. Glancing up at them for the first time, Zed remembered that they’d come for a reason. As much as he wanted to catch up and hear what Salvador had been up to the last seven years, he had a job to do. 

The person that spoke was a blonde man in a Dahl uniform, a soldier of some ranking, though Zed wasn’t sure what rank the chevrons above his eye represented. He looked like he’d seen some serious shit, if the lines of stress on his face were anything to go by. He didn’t appear to have any obvious injuries, but the way he nonchalantly favored an arm to grip his gut meant there had to be something bothering him. 

To the soldier’s right stood a fairly tall, pretty woman in a warm blue jacket and baggy pants - clearly someone with similar tastes as Chava, judging by her similarly dyed blue hair - who also appeared to have no obvious injuries. 

Behind the soldier and to his left stood yet an even taller person, dressed all in white and looking around the room with what Zed assumed was interest. 

Roland said there were six of them in total, but since only four stood before him, the other two must’ve either gotten lost on the way, or were still outside. 

“Do I know him?!” Salvador repeated the soldier’s words, slowly turning so he was standing to Zed’s left facing the others. “Ha! Me and Zed here go _ way _back, ain’t that right, mi hermano?” He clapped a friendly hand against Zed’s shoulder.

Zed glanced down at him, then back up at the soldier, letting out a small chuckle at the understatement. “Heh, that’s one way to put it. As you’ve no doubt guessed already, name’s Zed.” He stepped forward and offered a hand out. “Zed Blanco.”

The soldier shook his hand, brief and firm, with a half grin and a raised eyebrow thrown in. “Axton Morrison.”

Next, he offered it to the woman. She startled a bit at the motion, caught off guard. “I’m Maya. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Her grip, like her tone, was formal and down to business, if a bit stiff.

No last name, eh? Were he employed in a legitimate hospital, Zed would’ve insisted on hearing her last name, but they were on Pandora, he didn’t need her full name to do his damn job. Though he did briefly wonder why she chose to not say it.

“The pleasure’s all mine, darlin’.” Releasing her hand, Zed offered it to the stranger in white. They made no move to return the gesture, though a bit of red holographic text appeared over the front of their helmet, a glowing :). 

“I am Zer0.” A 0 with a slash through it replaced the :).

Oh, great, another weirdo hellbent on appearin’ the lone ranger. Zed’s friendly smile slipped slightly at the refusal, but it wasn’t exactly the first time someone had stiffed him, so he didn’t let it get to him. At least this one was borderline _ polite _about it, that was more than he could say about most people.

“Charmed.” He lowered his arm and stepped back to where he’d been. 

Before he could ask about the other two, Salvador spoke up. 

“Gaige is outside talkin’ to the big boy, he got a little upset when we got here.” He pointed a thumb towards the door, where Zed could faintly hear a girl’s voice strongly urging someone inside.

“The big boy?” No one in the rooms showed any signs of mutation, not even the weirdo Zer0, so Zed was willing to bet that that was his man. 

Both Maya and Axton got a strange look, almost embarrassed, on their faces.

Maya shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and looked around awkwardly, while the soldier rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and forcefully breathed out through his nose. “Yeah, um…”

“Oh, show some respect.” Salvador snapped at them, rolling his eyes and jamming his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans, shifting his weight onto one leg. “Nuestro amigo Krieg.” He explained. “At least that’s what we think his name is. He’s a bit… special, in his own way. We think somethin’s up with his head, but none of us have got the first clue what the fuck it could be.” 

There it was- that compassionate sparkle in Salvador’s eye that betrayed the stern expression he usually wore. The years had been cruel, but he was still the same old Chava, it seemed. 

Crossing his arms over his chest, Zed rubbed his bottom lip with his forefinger. ““Special,” huh?” The way Salvador described it, it sounded like this Krieg fella might just be who Roland was talkin’ about, but there was no way to know for sure unless he actually saw the guy. 

There was a frustrated shout from outside. A young girl, in her late teens, if he had to guess, stomped inside, closing the door behind her with a huff. Everyone in the room snapped their heads to watch her dramatic entrance. 

That must be the Gaige that Chava had mentioned. She was clearly new to Pandora, judging by her flashy, and _ fairly _clean, clothes and the untamed rats nest of red hair. Her left arm was prosthetic, way more advanced and put together than any Pandoran could scrape together, that was for goddamn sure. Was she an amputee or born missing it? Another amputee meant Zed could expect complaints of phantom pains and, depending on how long she’d been missing the limb, a few good migraines over maintenance. 

“So, is he, um… is gonna come in, or…?” Maya asked.

Gaige let out a frustrated sigh. “Ugh, _ no. _He kept saying something about scientists and not wanting to go back, but he wouldn’t tell me what the fuck he was talking about.” Axton let out an irritated sigh at the words. Maya and Salvador simply looked at each other. Zer0 said nothing. 

Scientists? Well, that certainly narrowed it down by quite a bit. It was starting to look like they actually _ did _have some poor slagged up bastard with ‘em. But if he was refusing to see Zed, then that could cause some unintended problems. 

“It sounds to me like your friend might have a bit of slag poisoning.”

They all looked at Zed with varying amounts of confusion, even the masked Zer0, who displayed a ?.

“The fuck is slag?” Gaige asked. Axton echoed her question with a grunt of agreement. 

“Aye, the hell are you goin’ about?” Salvador asked as well, tilting his head and squinting an eye. 

“Slag is a glassy by-product left over from the refinement process of minerals and ores, typically metals.” Maya said, causing the others to look even more confused. “But what I don’t understand is how you could possibly get _ poisoning _from it unless you injected it into yourself while it’s in its molten form, and even then I don’t see how someone could walk out of that.”

“Well, normally, you’d be right.” Zed sighed. “Now, I don’t expect y’all you know much about it, since ya seem to be new to Pandora ‘n’ all, and I don’t expect you-” he looked pointedly at Salvador, “-To know anythin’, either, what with Ovejas bein’ so far outta Hyperion’s range of influence on the planet. But-” 

He was cut off by Maya, whose face suddenly lit up brighter than a Mercenary Day tree. “Wait, you don’t mean-”

“Eridium.” The second Gaige said that, understanding dawned on the woman, followed soon by horror and disgust. 

“What, you mean that weird glowy purple shit Atlas found all over Promethea?” Axton crossed his arms and hunched forward slightly, his mouth hanging open slightly in his confusion.

“That’s the shit.” Zed confirmed. “Hyperion found loads of it after a couple vault hunters opened a vault up somewhere to the northwest some five years ago.”

Axton straightened. “So… wait, was that what that big fuckin’ purple belt across the surface was?”

“Purple belt? I didn’t see anything like that when I flew in.” Now it was Gaige’s turn to cross her arms and shuffle her weight around.

The horrified look in Maya’s eyes lingered, but now she seemed to be working something out in her head. “I didn’t see it, either, but there weren’t any windows on my shuttle.” She placed a hand on her hip, furrowing her brows as she looked around absently.

“I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say this Eridium bullshit is the source of our boy’s slag poisoning?” Chava asked. 

“You got it.” Zed confirmed once more.

“But what’s so special about it? If it’s ore runoff like Maya said, then how could someone get poisoning from it? And what kind of fucked up shit could Eridium runoff even do to make Krieg like… _ that _?”

“Well, that’s the thing: no one knows what the hell Eridium is, exactly, and the slag from the refinement process is… weird, to say the least.” And even that was an understatement. Weird was one thing, and Eridium was some 50 levels above that, and Eridium _ slag _ was about 50 levels above _ that _. “But the point is, Hyperion does some real nasty experiments with it, injectin’ it into all kinds of animal and plants, and for a while, they were even usin’ people.”

Maya looked up at Zed. “What do you mean “were?””

“Well, shit, I don’t really know much about it, no one ‘cept Hyperion does,” Zed rubbed the back of his neck and exhaled heavily, “But one day, ‘bout three or so years ago, we started findin’ people who’d been all mutated to hell and back. Normal exposure to Eridium causes all kinds of weird shit to happen, like with what happened over at Headstone Mine before the openin' of the first vault, but the slag… that was a whole new beast. Most of the bastards the Raiders found were either dead or so goddamn mutated that they may as well have been. Would’ve been kinder that way, honestly. 

“Then after a while, they brought in someone who still had, ah, _ some _mental faculties intact. Between the fits of screaming and him coughing up purplish blood, myself and an assistant managed to figure out that he’d escaped a place called the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve out in the highlands. We knew about the place, but up ‘til then, the Raiders hadn’t the first clue what went on in there. Turns out that’s where they do all their little experiments. The poor guy didn’t even remember his own name, couldn’t tell what was up and what was down, but boy, did he have a lot to say about what Hyperion did to him.”

“What did he say?” Maya asked quietly.

“I couldn’t even tell ya half of it, it was such a garbled mess that he didn’t even make a lick of sense. But we were able to piece together some of what we _ could _understand, and just the thought of it makes my blood run cold.” Zed sighed again and paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, rubbing his forehead with a few fingertips. “Over the next couple months, we found a few more. In between all the rantin’ and ravin’ from the ones that could talk, we found out that all these people we’d been findin’ were either failures that they’d thrown out with the trash, or the ones lucky enough to figure out how to escape. Apparently Hyperion didn’t give two shits about the people whose lives they were ruinin’, not even if they got out. Why would they when they got an endless supply of bandits and honest, hardworkin’ people livin’ here to exploit?

“Anyways, about, eh, I’d say maybe a year or so ago, somethin’ real nasty happened over at the preserve. Couple raiders patrolling the area said the place went into full lockdown, sirens blaring and everything, had every guard and loader at their disposal out combing the grounds and surrounding area. Lotta raiders think one of their pet projects got a little too outta hand, even for them, ‘cause over the next couple weeks after that, we stopped findin’ their discarded subjects. ‘Course, there’s still the ones that got out themselves runnin’ around, the ones that can still more or less function, but the dead and dyin’ ones… ain’t seen hide nor hair of one of them since it happened.”

The vault hunters were silent for several tense moments after Zed finished, all of them staring off into space as they processed what they’d just heard. Not that Zed could blame them; it had been a shocking thing to witness firsthand, but to hear it all condensed like that must’ve been a pretty sobering experience.

After hearing that, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were having second thoughts about joining.

“_ Fuck _.” Salvador finally said. 

“Oh, I am _ SO _gonna kill Jack.” Gaige followed, ramming a fist against the palm of her metal hand. 

…Or maybe not. 

Axton stared at the floor, his face a stony mask, while Zer0 showed no signs of movement, only a series of dots slowly flashing over their head. 

“It ain’t none of y’all’s fault that you didn’t know anything about it. The only reason _we_ know is ‘cause we’re in the blast zone, so to speak.” Zed told them. 

Maya looked up from the spot on the floor she’d been staring at. “So, you think that’s what happened to Krieg?” 

“I ain’t sayin’ shit, there’s really no way for me to know unless I meet the guy. But from what you’ve said about him, odds are pretty good, I’m sorry to say.”

“Can you help him?” Gaige asked.

Zed let out yet another heavy sigh. “There ain’t no treatment that I know of that can cure slag, darlin’. The best I can do is treat the symptoms. It all depends on how bad he is and whether or not he’s willin’ to let me help.”

“So you won’t even try?!” She looked affronted.

“I ain’t sayin’ no such thing! As a doctor, I am bound by the Hippocratic oath, not that anyone these days seems to give a damn.” And wasn’t he a damned hypocrite for saying that, too. Sure, he wasn’t like Ned, and god forbid he was anything like Ted, but he couldn’t deny there were a few spots on his track record, no matter how much he tried to put it behind him. “Look, from what you said earlier, it sounds like the man’s been traumatized to hell and back, and unless one of you can convince him to let me help, nothin’ I say or do will help anyone, much less him. Hell, it’ll probably make things even worse.” Zed didn’t like getting stern with kids, but he needed her to understand what a delicate situation they were in. It wasn’t as simple as prescribing a drug and hoping for the best, this was uncharted territory, and mutations were known to be more than a little irreversible. 

Besides, he still didn’t even know what the hell was wrong with the guy. 

Gaige still looked pretty pissed, but he could see she understood what he was saying.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Zed placed a hand on his hip, forcing air through his nose. “…Right, now if anyone has anything else to say about it, I’d suggest we get back to the matter at hand. Y’all came by ‘cause Roland wanted me to have a look atcha.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Axton finally said, uncrossing his arms to let them hang at his sides. “Waddaya need to know?”

“Well, for starters, are any of you injured?” 

There were several reactions from the five of them, all varying levels of “no, but-” looks on their faces. Except for Zer0, of course, who displayed a bold NO. 

It was Maya who spoke up first. “All of our serious injuries have been taken care of, but about, um…” She paused to look at her echo, then looked up at the ceiling, her mouth moving ever so slightly like she was doing a bit of quick math. “It was around 80 hours ago, so a little over three days ago, but we ended up getting tricked by Hyperion into getting on one of their trains.”

“Aye, Roland said as much. Normally, the vault hunters that get on that train don’t leave it alive. I’m findin’ that I’m a little curious as to how you managed to be the exception.” 

Salvador brightened a bit, no doubt eager to regale Zed with what would likely be an exaggerated story of what went down. 

“We had to fight our way through a buncha fuckin’ robots.” Axton beat him to the punch, explaining with no small amount of bravado in his voice. “Once we took ‘em all down, we found out that the whole train had been rigged with dynamite. It went off over the southern shelf.”

“And yet you’re all still here.” Zed observed. “Unless there were more of you, and you six are all that survived.”

“As far as I know, it was just us. We were all injured pretty badly, except for maybe Zer0 over there." Said Maya.

“I can only imagine.” Zed crossed his arms again. “Train wrecks aren’t exactly somethin’ the average person just walks off. How did you manage to survive it, anyhow?”

“I ended up with a concussion and an unpleasant amount of glass in me, Sal landed in a snow drift and only got a few burns and scrapes, Gaige had her robot catch her and only got a few burns and scrapes, as well, Krieg had a whole bunch of skin shredded off his shoulder, and Axton had a pipe go through his gut.”

Zed raised his eyebrows, his eyes going wide as Maya continued to list of the various injuries they sustained. “Ho-ly shit. Darlin’ you’re either the biggest liar on Pandora, or you got some kinda miracle medicine to be able to stand here not a whole Pandoran day later, fit as a fiddle.”

“Gaige had a first-aid stash in her robot, which was honestly the real lifesaver. Axton and I would’ve died if we didn’t have her with us.”

The teen responded by bashfully scratching her head. “I mean, it never hurts to be prepared, right?”

“No fucking kidding.” Axton chimed in. “I wouldn’t’ve lasted another five minutes if Zer0 hadn’t pulled that pipe out and stuck a hypo in.” 

“It was two hypos/ And yes, if it weren’t for her/ You would be stone dead.” Zed almost jumped in surprise when he heard that, as he’d completely forgotten about the masked Zer0 standing behind them all. Were they some kinda ‘bot themselves, or some kinda freak? An alien? There was no way to know. 

“Oh, thank you, because that is _ so _reassuring to me.” The soldier retorted, turning to give Zer0 a pointedly unamused look. Zer0 merely shrugged and flashed a :P.

A pipe through the stomach, though… 

“You mind if I ask a few questions ‘bout your, ah, injury, Axton?” Zed asked. Just one hypo wouldn’t be enough to do shit for organ damage, and two was cuttin’ it real close. Three would likely get it more or less healed up, but a man his size would only be able to take two within a 48 hour time frame without gettin’ overdosed, and that’s an awful long time to be leavin’ a man with internal damage.

“Watcha wanna know?”

“How the hell are you still alive, for one.”

“Ah. Yeah. I, uh…” He shoved a hand into his jacket pocket and got a weird look on his face, awkwardly scratching at his gut.

Next to him, Maya pulled in a deep breath, looking just as awkward. “I, ah, I suppose there’s, um… guess there’s no way to avoid it any longer.”

Zed was confused. What was she talking about? Avoid what? The others all looked at her with a mild amount of concern. “What’s all this about, now?”

“Are you sure?” Gaige asked her. 

Maya took another deep breath and exhaled. “I’m, um… I’m a siren.”

No. 

Raising an eyebrow, Zed eyed her incredulously. “You’re bullshittin’ me.” A siren? _ Really? _That was the best she could come up with? He couldn’t count on his fingers the amount of women, and the occasional man, who came in claiming they either were a siren, or had a siren with them. But a vault hunter? Seriously?

The woman looked a bit uncomfortable at his response, but said nothing, only silently unzipped her jacket. Slowly, she eased her right arm out of the jacket, and then the left, revealing a long sleeve of intricate blue tattoos swirling down from her shoulder to her fingers.

Zed had seen Lilith’s tattoos enough times to have their design almost committed to memory, and these were either a damn good impersonation, or… Was she for real? No, it would take more than some fancy inkwork to make a siren, that much was obvious.

Raising her left hand up in front of her, Maya’s eyes took on a faint glow, and the tattoos lit up as a small orb of what looked like either energy or condensed slag materialized above her palm. The orb seemed to pull on the air around it, like it was drawing everything in towards it. After several seconds, Maya clasped her hand into a fist and the orb disappeared.

Well, _ shit. _

Roland and Lilith were _ not _gonna believe this. 

Zed stared, dumbfounded, for a moment, too stunned to speak. A siren? An actual siren? _ Another actual living, breathing siren? _Oh, Jack’s days were numbered, alright. 

Now that Maya’s identity had been brought to light, she seemed to stand taller, almost proud, like the jacket had been weighing her down and now she was free. “I used my abilities to heal the rest of Axton’s injuries, as well as Krieg’s.”

Blinking once or twice, Zed was still attempting to process all of that. “Wait, wait, wait, so you can heal people? Honest to god?” He asked, raising a hand to gesture towards her.

Maya was about to speak, but was cut off by the sound of yelling outside, a loud, deep voice in some kind of disagreement.

The vault hunters looked alarmed when they heard that. Immediately, Chava and Gaige turned to rush back outside. 

As he went by Zed, he could hear Salvador hiss under his breath. “Ah, shit, Krieg, what now?” 

“Anyways…” Maya said, distracted as she watched the two leave. Once the door was shut again, her and the remaining two vault hunters turned back to Zed. “Anyways, Gaige had enough hypos and first aid supplies that we were able to get patched up. A claptrap and a man named Hammerlock helped us get something to eat and a boat to get back to the mainland.”

Zed whistled low, impressed. “God damn. Sounds like y’all are quite the resourceful bunch. Y’know,” he said, scratching at his chin, “I think you’ll do just fine out here.”

And he did. Zed Blanco had met a lot of people, lotta raiders, lotta idjits, lotta adventurers, wannabe treasure hunters, soldiers, people from all walks of life, and at some point he started to get a knack for tellin’ the foolhardy from the brave, the dumbasses from the survivors. These bastards had the potential to be somethin’ great, they just needed the time to shine, and with another fuckin’ _ siren, _their odds, and the Raiders’, were startin’ to look pretty goddamn good.

“I take it that means y’all don’t got any pressin’, or potentially life-threatening, issues you wanna bring up? Now’s the time. If there’s some kinda medicine you need, or whatever…” Zed trailed off. They’d gotten a little off track once or twice, he felt it was time to get back to business.

“None that I can think of.” Axton said.

Maya pulled her jacket back on and rezipped it. “Me neither. Nothing except… Krieg.”

Ah. Right. Their mutant friend. Zed would have to give that some thought. In the meantime, though, he had one more thing to discuss. 

“Yeah, I’d be happy to try, if you can convince him to let me. ‘Fore I let ya go, though, Roland asked me letcha know: there’s a house here in Sanctuary, been abandoned fer, uh, quite a while, I’d say. People that used to live there went and got themselves killed a while back, and no one else has decided to claim the place. He said it’s yours, if you’re so inclined.”

“Well, that’s mighty generous of you guys.” Said Axton, rolling his head back a bit, a suspicious look in his eyes. “What’s the catch? Y’ain’t gonna make us stay in some musty-ass barracks?” 

“Nah, the Raiders ain’t exactly in a position to be too big of sticklers about that kinda bullshit, and all that. If you got a place to rest your head, it’s yours, and if you don’t, we’ll find ya one. Simple as that.” That was avoiding the question, though. The Murtaughs had been fairly well-liked, and no one had the heart to move in and take up residence in their old place. Not that it mattered, though, at that point it was just free real estate. 

“Where is it at?” Maya asked. 

Zed placed his hands on his hips and hung his head, shifting his weight around as he tried to recall. “Oh, now let’s see… it’s in the southeastern part of the city, near the bar, I know that. Big ol’ two-story place we been callin’ the Murtaugh House. Have a look around, get to know the city, and if ye still can’t find it, anyone in town’ll be like to help.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Only that he’ll come find y’all when the sun comes back up. He’s got a few things he’s gotta run first, I suspect.”

Axton made a sound of acknowledgement and waved over his shoulder as he casually strolled to the door. Zer0 followed him out, leaving the door ajar.

Maya moved as if to follow, as well, but stopped halfway. “Hey, if it’s not too much trouble, I’d appreciate it if you, um… if you didn’t, uh… if you didn’t mention that I’m a siren.” She said. “I’d like to be the one to tell Roland myself.”

“I don’t mind, darlin’. It’s none of my business, anyways. You’d be riskin’ a helluva lot by publicly announcin’ somethin’ like that.” Walking over to the door, Zed grabbed the handle and held it open for her.

She raised an eyebrow at the gesture, but didn’t question it. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” She bowed her head, and with that, she walked out of the clinic to join the others, who could be heard speaking amongst themselves somewhere in the distance.

Closing the door, Zed let his shoulders slump and sighed, weary. Oh, Christ, things were either about to get much worse, or much better, he could feel it. The doctor hoped it was the latter, but he knew from experience that they tended to get worse first; only there was no way to know just how soon that would be, if it ever happened. 

Now that _that_ was out of the way, though, he’d have to go write up a report on the check-up for Roland, as he did with all potential recruits. Zed may not have actually given them the usual go-over, but they were on Pandora; nothin’ was normal, and if they weren’t bleedin’ out or suffering from the typical Pandoran maladies, chances were they were fine. He would have to dig up some of the vaccines from the store room, though, just in case some of ‘em weren’t vaccinated against the native diseases. Most newcomers to the planet had some amount of immunity from other, related diseases, but it never hurt to ask.

Maybe now he could get his office in order, and find that picture in the meantime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perspective change! So much perspective change! And I loved the thought of Zed and Salvador being old friends too much to not include it


	15. Home Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the moment you all (but mostly me) have been waiting for: the face reveal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh. Life is a bitch. And I've been super hyperfocused on Fallout 4 lately, and trying to write this while obsessed with something else is. Fun. But this was a pretty long chapter, so I guess it makes sense that it would take a bit longer to write. I got it done though, and that's what matters

Sanctuary.

It was hard for Krieg to believe, yet there he was, walking through the streets of the closest thing on Pandora that could pass for a city; a peaceful,  _ occupied  _ city, no less, and the other guy hadn’t once tried to kill anyone. Not yet, at least. 

The place wasn’t what he would call large, by any means, especially not when vague impressions of sprawling metropolises floated in the back of his mind, all towering skyscrapers and bright lights and crowded streets. There might’ve been a time when he would’ve walked down those crowded streets, wherever they were. Not that he would want to, especially not in his current state. 

Sanctuary, according to the polite young raider Raleigh, who'd shown them through, was built on top of an abandoned Dahl mining ship. Underneath was apparently a huge tunnel system, and knowing they were essentially sitting on top of a massive hole didn’t exactly make the big guy feel any better about being there. 

Krieg, himself, was admittedly a little worried, though for entirely different reasons: the other guy was on edge because the two of them were unused to being around so many people who weren’t actively running away or trying to kill him, while Krieg was anxious because he had no idea how long he’d be able to keep the other guy convinced to stick around without snapping. He did well enough back on the shelf with Sir Hammerlock, Claptrap, and the vault hunters, but he felt that adding a whole host of trained soldiers and innocent civilians into the mix was pushing it a little too much. 

But they had a doctor. Krieg had no idea just how qualified this “doctor” of theirs was, although considering the man had his own clinic, not to mention he ran the medicinal vending machines, he must have had at least  some  _expertise_, if not the credentials. There was no denying that he, that both of them, needed help badly. If there was a chance that he could approach some semblance of “normal” again, he’d take it. Hell, he’d settle for just plain old “not trying to kill everything, including himself.”

The only issue was that the big guy refused to even see the man. Once they came up on the clinic, the sight of the neon sign displaying a giant syringe sent a sudden flash of heat from his head down to his toes that left him light-headed; his breath hitched, and his heart skipped a beat and started to race. The scent of sterile antiseptic and metal hit him like a train, though he couldn’t tell if it was real or a memory. He’d stopped dead in his tracks, the fire under his skin bubbling and burning a hole in his gut that pushed a lump up into his throat and made him want to scream and run away.

All things considered, the other guy was surprisingly  tame  about the ordeal; he mumbled and muttered on about the scientists, about that  _ coward  _ and the others back at the preserve, vigorously shaking his head and growling until the others, and eventually Gaige, let him be. 

After that, well… Krieg had tried his best to talk himself down and keep from going into a full blown panic. It took several minutes of pacing and repeating the same words of reasurement, but he was eventually able to calm down enough to sit against the wall near the door, legs sprawled out in front of him, positioned so he didn’t have to see the sign. 

There was a brief moment of panic when he tried to find his axe, thinking he’d somehow lost it, only to remember a second later that he’d stored it in the deck from Maya. 

It had become a force of habit, taking apart and cleaning his axe. In the previous months, watching as he took the head apart and scrutinized it to hell and back until the metal shone seemed obsessive, only now he was beginning to appreciate it; it kept the other guy distracted and focused, and most importantly, it didn’t involve maiming, screaming, or self-harm. Most of the time, anyways. 

He wasn’t sure what had happened, exactly, as Krieg had begun to zone out and sink into the back of his head, but as he was putting the axe head back together again, something got the other guy all worked up again. Maybe it was the stress of being in Sanctuary, maybe someone looked at him wrong, maybe it was just the usual flashbacks, he hadn't any idea. All Krieg knew was that when he rushed back into focus, he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, shaking like a leaf. 

It was then that it hit him, as well, the feelings of helplessness and anxiety, fear of what would happen if he stayed and let that “doctor” anywhere near him, anger at himself for feeling that way. In between the hyperventilating and gasping, he was shouting “No! No!” at someone who wasn’t there, someone he knew couldn’t be there, but all the same, he swore he could feel her cold, gloved hands on his skin, thin fingers running along the veins until they were underneath the bandages, digging in like little pin pricks and sending painful shocks of numbness and electricity up his arms. Krieg’s blunted nails scratched and pawed at the back of his skull.

He might have said other things, might have started talking to the non-existent person harassing him, but he wasn’t entirely sure. The next thing he was aware of was two someones both talking to him at once, dragging him back to reality. When his vision cleared, Gaige and Salvador were both kneeling on either side of him, albeit keeping at least a meter of space between them and him. Probably for the best.

The other guy was quick to smother everything down once he processed that they weren’t alone, trying to hide that anything was amiss. Krieg wanted to shout at the other guy, smack the back of his own head and call him an idiot for doing that. If they knew what was wrong, they could help! They could get that doctor to help! If Krieg got help, then they might stop having these… fits. Finally stop hurting. 

Krieg tried to listen to them, he really did, but the anxiety and fear left his brain full of hydrogen and ears stuffed with cotton. What were they saying? He could hear the words, knew he understood them, but they just weren’t processing. He was, however, able to understand when Salvador started swearing vehemently in Spanish, demanding to know if he was alright. The other guy responded to that by snapping his head up at Salvador and growling “claramente no!” 

While the man hadn’t been dissuaded, he did back off slightly and lower his voice, switching to English to tell Gaige something before returning to the steady flow of Spanish. He must have asked another question, because he stopped talking, and when Krieg failed to respond, Gaige tried to ask something in German. Even though she was slow and fumbled over the pronunciations, the meaning could be found underneath her poor grasp: is this Hyperion's fault?

Snapping his head to face her instead, the other guy went still and silent, staring her down. Krieg could feel that he was at a loss for words, enraged by the audacity to even  _ ask  _ him that. The wanted poster had come crawling up to the forefront of his mind, along with the fear that they might figure out  _ why  _ those bastards considered him their “property,” fear of what they would do with that information.

Realistically,  _ Krieg  _ knew, or maybe hoped, that they would be understanding - after all, the vault hunters seemed to hate the corporation just as much as he did - but the other guy, though… Assuming the worst in others was what kept them from ending up dead in a ditch all those months, as much as he hated to admit it.

He still refused to give an answer, opting to respond with a throaty  _ hmph _ . 

Salvador and Gaige didn’t try to pry after that, choosing to simply join him in sitting against the wall until the rest of the vault hunters emerged. 

Axton and Salvador seemed intent on locating a bar, if there was one, leading them off on a confused trail through Sanctuary. There weren’t a whole lot of people out, what with it getting close to what could be considered “late evening,” and the place was hardly a maze, but they still got turned around once or twice. Gaige proved to be their saving grace, so to speak; she took it upon herself to ask the few residents out for directions, then took to the front of the group and led them around a few corners until they stood in front of what appeared to be one of the many near-identical buildings. 

Crammed in between a tall building connected to a large overhang and a short concrete building with a rusted garage door, a few short steps led up to a plain door. The window in the door, along with the windows to either side of the door and on the second level, had the curtains all pulled. Krieg wasn’t entirely sure why they were there, nor what significance the building held. If he had to take a guess, it was a house. How did Gaige know where to find the place? Had the doctor said something, or was it something else? He didn’t remember Commander Roland saying anything.

“You sure this is the place?” Axton asked, pacing and looking around at the other building surrounding them like he was searching, wringing his hands and swinging them. Salvador had taken to lifting himself up on his toes to glance inside one of the windows. The sight of Maya standing next to him, peering into the same window with no issue, was rather amusing; the corner of Krieg’s mouth twitched up slightly, the faintest of smirks.

“Yeah, dude, ‘course.” Gaige sounded confident. “I lived on Eden-5, remember? This place is practically a fucking  _ village  _ compared to the city I lived in.”

Axton seemed to give up his ansy searching, stopping somewhere on Krieg’s left and shading his eyes as he gave the place a look-over. “Right. What city was that, anyhow? I ain’t been to Eden-5 in a while, but I spent my fair share of time there bar hoppin’ back in the day.” 

_ He’s just gonna come out and say that, huh.  _

The other guy rolled his eyes.

“I’ve taken a few/ Jobs there, myself. I find that/ I’m curious, too.” 

Christ, how in the hell did Zer0 always manage to disappear and reappear when he least expected it? One moment, it was just the five of them, and then the next moment Zer0 was standing to Krieg’s right. Were they doing that deliberately because it was his blind spot, or was there another reason? 

The others seemed taken off guard by their sudden presence, as well. 

Whipping around, Gaige looked from Zer0, to Krieg, to Axton, then back to Zer0. It may have just been his imagination, what with his systems still being a bit shocked from his breakdown outside the clinic, but Krieg could’ve sworn something in her gaze faltered when she glanced at him. He hoped he was just seeing things. 

“Metro City!” Just like that, Gaige’s surprise was replaced with an unrestrained lopsided grin. She’d held her own pretty well for someone so inexperienced back on the glacier, although she still had that glimmer of youthful optimism in her eyes. She had the eyes of someone who may have seen tragedy and loss in their life, but never up-close and personal, never to the degree that Pandora offered, never seen death and destruction the way Krieg had, the way Axton had, the way Salvador had, hell, not even the way Maya had. 

Would she still be able to hold out and remain strong, even after she finally lost count of the number of people she killed? In a galaxy left ruined, wasted, and full of ruthless malice, Pandora offered a new kind of desperation, a different form of hell that stood apart from the advanced battlegrounds of modern warfare spanning the horizons. Shit, if there even  _ was  _ a Hell like he’d been taught, it might be a nice reprieve after his tenure on Pandora… 

“Oh, yeah? I hear they got a pretty big university over there.” Axton said. “Sarah talked about wanting to do some classes there once or twice, but she never got the chance, what with Dahl keeping us so goddamned busy all the fuckin’ time, deployin’ us ‘n’ shit.”

Gaige turned back to the door and turned to handle, only to be met with the click of the lock. “Fucking hell! It’s locked.” Huffing, she jumped down the steps and began furiously searching around the doorway.

They watched her with confusion. “The hell you doin, chica?” Salvador asked. 

“I’m looking for a spare key. Help me, wouldja?” 

With a grumble of reluctant agreement, Salvador joined her in scrounging around, and soon Axton did, as well.

_ He must be more bored than I thought. _

Krieg’s eyes began to wander around, taking in the details of Sanctuary surrounding him as the other guy began to lose interest. The garage door, rusted to hell where the faded beige paint hadn’t chipped away, was some four, maybe five, meters to the right of the front door; that was just his eyeballed guess, though. Maya had taken to running her hand along the wall as she meandered down it, picking at bits of paint and watching them drift down to the ground. What was she thinking about? 

Hmm, now that he was thinking about it, she had also been looking at him weirdly. In fact, all of them had a sort of guilty look in their eyes when they glanced at him, and glancing was all they’d been doing. Back on the glacier, they’d looked at him like they would anyone else, but now it was like they were avoiding him, as if there was something they could ignore if they just didn’t make eye contact. What was going  _ on? _

Narrowing his eyes at the realization, the big guy continued to watch as Maya stood in front of the garage door. To the side, he could hear the others poking shit at each other over their search for a key that may or may not exist. 

Maya had shifted her weight onto her left leg, a hand on one hip as she studied the large door intently. Krieg raised an eyebrow, wondering what it was she could possibly hope to find in its rusted depths, when she stepped up to it and grabbed a hold of a handle near the bottom. She squatted and braced herself, making sure she had a firm hold on it before pulling up. The door lifted a few centimeters and stopped.

_ Go in through the garage, huh? Hopefully it actually leads into the place. _

And hopefully the door inside was unlocked, or else they’d be no closer to getting in. 

The door made a shrill grinding noise as Maya tried to pull it further up, grunting and straining from the effort, but it refused to go any higher. 

_ We should help her. _

The other guy rolled his eyes and exhaled heavily through his nose, then walked over to where Maya was. It took her a few seconds to notice him standing there. She stopped pulling on the door to look up, a vaguely surprised look in her eyes. 

“Here,” she said, and released the garage handle to take a few steps to the right, “See if you can get it.”

Krieg’s gaze lingered on her a bit longer than it probably should have, looking her in the eye as he leaned down to grip the handle with his braced arm. What was the big guy searching for? Some hint that she and the others were out to get him? Unless he was just trying to show off, which seemed highly unlikely, given the circumstances.

The handle was too small for him to grab with both hands, he could barely even get it with one, but with a grunt of effort, Krieg slowly pulled the garage door up, bracing his right hand against the bottom once it was waist high. 

Christ, the sound it made was just  _ horrible _ : old rusted metal scraping against old rusted metal was never a good thing to hear, no matter the context, and the more Krieg pulled the door up, the more apparent it became that the damned thing seemed warped and dented in a few places, as well. They would be lucky if they ever managed to get it closed again afterwards.

Over the bone-chilling sound of the door’s wailing, the other vault hunters had apparently stopped their mad hunt for a key, along with their bantering, to watch. Or so he assumed. Once the door was just above his head, where it stopped and refused to budge, Krieg finally let go and took a step back to catch his breath. Holy shit, that thing was a lot more stuck that it had seemed, it was a wonder that Maya had gotten it as far as she did. Well, she  _ was  _ pretty damn strong, that much was obvious.

_ Nicely done.  _

The other guy huffed. 

“Damn, I guess that works.” Salvador looked like he was embarrassed that he hadn’t thought of that, running a hand through his hair to spike it back up. 

Gaige strode over to the now open garage, stopping momentarily to pat Krieg’s shoulder. “Thanks, dude.” She said, ducking inside, followed by the others.

The evening light offered a great deal of illumination, revealing a toolbox shoved against the left wall and a greasy floor littered with loose tools and scrap. The right side of the garage was still dark, along with the back wall. A light soon flicked on, a series of fluorescent bulbs lining the ceiling buzzing as they lit the entire room up with a bright off-yellow light. 

Krieg ducked under to join the others. In a previously dark corner on the left hand side of the room, Gaige stood on some concrete steps leading up to yet another door, a plain, unfinished slab of wood with a copper knob. She let out a whoop of victory when she turned the knob and found the door unlocked. Pushing it open, the teen giddily disappeared through the dark doorway. 

Zer0 and Axton followed after her, while Maya and Salvador looked through the contents of the garage. The big guy must have been unsure what to do, as Krieg simply watched them rummage around. Gaige and Axton could be faintly heard somewhere above him, the two of them laughing at something, immediately followed by an abrupt stop, what he guessed was Zer0 tossing their two cents in, and even more hysterical cackling from Gaige. If Krieg cared to guess, he’d say that the soldier had once again talked himself into another roasting.

“What do you think they needed all this shit for?” Maya asked, standing in front of a table with boxes containing what appeared to be old books and crafting materials. 

_ It’s not uncommon to find someone who collects whatever random bullshit they can find out here. You’d be surprised at how resourceful and creative people can be, especially in this hellhole. _

Salvador turned away from the counters lining the left side of the garage, looking over his shoulder at her. “Ain’t got a fuckin’ clue, hermana.” 

There was another burst of cackling from above them, followed by what sounded like a  _ smack  _ and Axton whining, and, surprisingly, Zer0 also laughing. 

Well, at least someone was having fun. 

“Aye, the fuck they doin’ up there? Leave them idiots alone for a second and they start adoptin’ the manners of a pack of skags.” Salvador said, sounding exasperated, but interested. “Come on, let’s go make sure they’re not about to go full feral.”

Maya dropped the book she’d been inspecting back into one of the boxes. “Right.” She said, following Salvador up through the door. The other guy followed soon after. 

As he reached the landing of the door, Krieg leaned back in to flip the light switch back off, then pulled the door shut after him. Immediately, he found himself inside a dim corner of the house; a lightbulb hung from a wire about a meter in front of him, and in the direction of the of the entryway, there was a flickering dome light. 

Krieg found himself in what he assumed was a decently sized living room, if the couch wasting away to his left was any indicator. To his right, a filthy table and some chairs were pushed against the wall, and the floor was littered with dust, dead insect carcasses, and rodent droppings. Cobwebs seemed to dominate almost every nook and cranny he could see. What the hell were they all doing there?

The dome light illuminated a small kitchen, where Salvador was pulling open the curtains in one of the windows he’d seen next to the front door. He moved to the window on the other side of the door and pulled open the other set of curtains, the sudden flood of light from both lighting up the rest of the room. 

Taking another look around the place, Krieg’s eyes followed Maya as she meandered over to an archway in the wall to his right. 

“Stairs are over here, guys.” She said, disappearing around the corner a second later. Krieg followed her up, the steps creaking and groaning underfoot as he ascended.

_ Christ, I hope these don’t decide to shit out on us, I don’t wanna end up picking splinters out of our pants.  _

“Mmm, wood rot and maggots, a fine feast for thee.” The other guy growled. 

Maya suddenly stopped at the top of the steps and turned to look back at him. “What was that?” She almost looked surprised to hear him.

_ What, did you forget we were here? _

The other guy squinted at her in the dim light. “Crickety creaking up the tower to fall down the rabbit’s hole to the hatter’s table.” He tilted his head and pitched his voice to a weird tone. “What lies beneath the stairway to heaven, a delectable array of bugs and rotting  _ flesh?”  _

Maya raised an eyebrow and stared for a moment as she processed his words. “Uh… oh!” Her face lit up. “Don’t worry, big guy, if you fall through, I’ll catch you, alright?”

Seemingly satisfied with that response, the other guy grunted.

The second floor consisted of a square-ish hallway lit by another dome light. Directly in front of the steps was a thin door. The wall immediately to his right, opposite the wall the stairs were on, were two parallel doors, and a fourth door occupied the far corner of the last wall. The two parallel doors and the one in the corner were all open, likely having just been thoroughly searched by Zer0 and the other two knuckleheads. 

As if summoned by the thought, Krieg could hear Gaige and Axton loudly ribbing each other followed by Axton storming out of the room in the far corner with an exaggerated wave of his arm. 

“Whatever, man! You can have that stupid room, for all I give a shit!” He said, turning back to shout his response through the door.

“Oh, fuck off!” Gaige’s voice called out. “You’re just  _ jeeeeaaalous  _ that I already claimed this one!”

Axton, who had started to walk away, halted for a second and turned, opening his mouth like he was about to shout something else back, but must have thought better of it, as he shook his head and kept walking. “Whatever.” He muttered. 

Maya leaned against the wood rail of the stairwell. “She already trying to divvy up living spaces?” 

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” Axton hung his head back and groaned. “Ever since we stepped inside, she’s been portioning off everything.”

The other guy, not wanting to spend the next few minutes standing around listening to them talk while they ignored him, meandered over to the first door, the thin one in front of the steps. It must have been a linen closet, considering the size and the shelves lining two of the walls, but it was filled with… uh… junk? He couldn’t really tell, as most of it was bagged up inside large gray trash bags. He thought he could see bits of what looked like… was that metal or bones? Either way, bits of  _ something  _ were sticking through the stretched plastic, not to mention covered in dust, cobwebs, and yet  _ more  _ rodent droppings. Gross.

He shut the door. 

The first of the parallel doors led into a bedroom. A window on the wall opposite the door had its curtains yanked to the sides and tied with what looked like wire, probably Gaige’s handiwork. A great deal of dust swirled around in the light that shone through. Underneath the window was a dresser covered in dust, likely one of the primary sources of the dust in the air, judging by the streak that ran through it. Another sign that Gaige had been in there. Where there wasn’t dust, there were bits of old, twisted wood, ancient driftwood collected long ago by whoever used to occupy the room.

Two single beds sat on either side of the dresser, one unmade and covered in clothes thrown haphazardly onto it as if in a rush, the other properly made up with an open suitcase pushed up against the wall; a few half-folded clothes sat inside of the suitcase, and a few more sat on the blanket next to it, along with disassembled parts of what he assumed was a hunting rifle.

Who lived there? It was obvious that the place had been abandoned for quite a while, but what could have happened to the people that lived there? 

Krieg turned to leave the room, flicking the light switch off and closing the door behind him as he did. 

The next room was similar, with a window on the opposite wall, except this one had a pair of bunk beds partially obscuring one end. Two dressers - one to the right of the door, the other at the foot of the beds - had most of their drawers yanked out, clothing falling out of them onto the floor. The beds had been hastily made. On the far right side of the room was an open closet, though at a glance, there didn’t seem to be anything in it. Nothing the other guy cared about, anyways. 

Back in the hallway, Maya and Axton were still chatting, only now the two of them were both leaning against the rail with their arms crossed, as if they were two gossiping teenagers. Their conversation faltered and trailed off when they saw Krieg emerge from the room, pulling the door shut. 

Huh, there was that weird look again. Ever since they went to see that doctor, they’d been giving him that same look, like they were almost  _ guilty.  _ Was he really just imagining it?

No, no, it wasn’t just his imagination; something happened in that clinic, something regarding  _ him,  _ some sort of discussion, and he couldn’t even begin to imagine  _ what _ , exactly. 

The other guy huffed and rolled his eyes at them, then turned to the last room. 

Gaige had apparently decided to set up shop in the final bedroom. It wasn't really any larger than the other two, but still clearly the master bedroom, with a double bed dominating most of the room space. The headboard of the bed was pushed up against the wall to his right, with a bare nightstand on either side and a dresser acting as a footboard. A large window with its thin, ratty curtains pulled shut occupied the far wall, and the left wall contained a closet and another ajar door; probably a bathroom, he guessed. 

The teen was sat cross-legged right on the center of the bed, a browser open on her echo. She looked up from the holoscreen, doing a double-take when she realized who it was. “Krieg!” She shouted. “There you are! What do you think of the place? Apparently Roland said we can have this place, can you believe it? We’re gonna be  _ roommates! _ ” 

The other guy was taken aback by her sudden enthusiasm. It was the first time since they left that nasty raider camp that any of them had tried to make any kind of serious conversation with him. Granted, so far Gaige had really been the only one making an active effort while the others seemed to only speak to him when they had to, but still… Krieg appreciated it, even if the big guy didn’t. 

“Y’know, I hadn’t really been planning on moving out any time soon after graduating.” Gaige just kept right on talking. “I mean, I was planning on getting a job or an apprenticeship or  _ something _ at the chop shop down the street from Old Man Owen’s noodle cart, but my parents were totally cool with me not moving out. ‘Course, I probably would’ve eventually. Like, a buddy of mine and I were talking about roomy-ing somewhere more in-town once we had the money, but I never thought I’d end up living in a house on  _ another planet  _ with a bunch of people I met a few days earlier, y’know?”

_ Well, someone’s certainly excited.  _

She had a point, though. Krieg could certainly relate to her surprise at the situation; a week prior, he’d been wandering aimlessly in some canyon, dangerously dehydrated and on the verge of shutting down, and now he was in one of the most secure settlements that wasn’t actively controlled by Hyperion or bandits, and they weren’t even trying to kill him. 

Not yet.

Behind him, he could hear Maya and Axton resuming their conversing, joined by Salvador. Where had Zer0 gone to? 

It sounded like Gaige was having quite the shock, though, going from her cushy urban life to being an intergalactic fugitive on a planet that hated the fact that it hosted life, all in a few days’ time. How did she manage to stay so upbeat through it all? There had to be more than met the eye underneath her bubbly exterior. 

The other guy tilted his head and wrinkled his nose, not expecting the onslaught of words that Gaige threw at him. He let out a short, shrill whining noise in response.

“Exactly!” She said, undeterred by his unusual reply. “You get it! I mean, you  _ are  _ gonna stay, right?”

Oh, no. There was genuine concern in her voice, like she thought Krieg was planning on leaving. He could tell that the other guy wanted to leave, but something seemed to be keeping him from committing. The pit of anxiety opened back up in his gut. “No one can stop  _ my  _ pain train.” He hissed through his teeth.

Clicking through something, Gaige closed out the browser she had up, the holoscreen disappearing as she leaned forward and climbed off the bed. Krieg stepped back out of the doorway to let her pass. 

Leaning her robotic arm on the doorframe, Gaige called over to the others by the stairs. “Hey, guys?” 

They stopped and looked at her. 

“So, if there’s only five beds, how’re we gonna divvy up the rooms? Are we gonna have someone take the couch downstairs, or are two of us gonna haveta share the big bed? ‘Cause I can always take the garage, if someone wants the big bed.”

That was a good point. The others all made various faces like they had been hoping to put off that particular conversation for as long as possible. 

“Well…” Maya started, sighing heavily and fidgeting. “What if Gaige and I take one of these rooms,” she gestured towards the two rooms next to each other. “And two of the guys take the other?” 

“Ok, but what about the big room? Are we just gonna force Zer0 to share with one of us?” Axton asked. 

“I don’t need any/ Quarters, but thank you for your/ Consideration.” Zer0 spoke from the stairwell, causing everyone to jump. The other guy was starting to get pretty annoyed at their habit of sneaking up on them like that. 

“Wait, what do you mean you don’t need a room, bro?” Axton asked.

“Yeah, ain’t you gotta sleep at least  _ some  _ time?” Salvador added.

“No.” Was Zer0’s only response, accompanied by a smug ;) emoji. 

Axton shook his head. “Fuckin’ weirdo.”

That was hardly surprising. Krieg wondered what a person like Zer0 could possibly have to do if they didn’t need their own room. Did they really not need sleep? Their behavior thus far was pretty damn convincing, but just how true was it? It was possible that they could have been sneaking off to get short bursts of sleep here and there like some kind of cat, but to not require any kind of downtime? Unless they were some kind of robot or cybernetically enhanced, it seemed a little far-fetched, even with the evidence he’d seen otherwise. 

“Ok, but that doesn’t solve who gets the big room.” Gaige said. She had gone from leaning her arm against the doorframe to standing with her back to it, her arms crossed. 

“We could always have Sal and Kriegy boy share a room.” Axton suggested, trying to sound nonchalant. It was clear that sharing a living space with Krieg was the last thing he wanted. The other guy scowled and glared at him. 

Almost immediately after he said that, Salvador sharply elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey! Show some fuckin’ respect, alright?”

“Ow! Fuck, man, fine, then what do  _ you  _ think we should do?”

“I say we let the big boy have the big room, and you and I can share the bunk.”

That was… certainly something the other guy could get behind, but why the sudden concern for him? There was something particularly sharp and scolding in Salvador’s expression when he said that, something that hadn’t been there before. 

Axton opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, only to be silenced by another hawkish look from Salvador, and a second sharp look from Maya. Her, too? What the hell were they all in on?

“I think that’s an excellent idea, Sal.” Maya said, her gaze lingering on Axton for a second longer than necessary before turning to Krieg. “I mean, if it’s ok with you, of course. Um…  _ is  _ it alright with you, Krieg?”

The other guy held her gaze for a moment, trying to figure out what everyone’s game was suddenly. With a grunt, he crossed his arms and nodded. 

“Great!” Gaige clapped her hands together. “Now that we’ve got  _ that  _ settled, let’s find some FOOD! I dunno about you guys, but I am  _ starving!” _

The tension in the room seemed to break, Salvador and Maya’s expressions melting into relief at the change of subject. Salvador, in particular, let out a bark of rough laughter and clapped Axton on the shoulder. “Ha ha! You got the right idea, hermana! And I know just the place, too!” The man stepped back and waved for the others to follow as he brushed past Zer0 down the stairs, Gaige and Axton close behind. 

Soon, it was just the three of them left. Then Zer0 vanished again, and it was the two of them. Alone. The pit in Krieg’s stomach only continued to grow, and at that point, he couldn’t tell if it was hunger, anxiety, or an ungodly mixture of both. Knowing himself, though, it was probably both. 

Well… now what was he gonna do? Krieg supposed he could always get to work on cleaning the place up, but that was the last thing the other guy wanted to be doing; he’d never be able to convince him on his own. 

And why was Maya looking so uncomfortable? Was hanging around him really that nerve-wracking? He could understand why being around him would make her uncomfortable, but still… 

The lingering infatuation he’d been trying to ignore wasn’t making his anxiety any better, either. He scratched at the back of his head and looked around. 

“Hey, so, uh…” Maya started, only to trail off. Her fidgeting had only gotten worse; she couldn’t decide whether or not she wanted to cross her arms, mess with her hair, or pick at her fingers. The other guy raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, curious as to what her god damned  _ deal  _ was. 

“Swallowed your tongue? Hope it was tasty.” He growled, not entirely friendly in tone. 

Maya looked up, caught off guard. “Oh! Sorry, I’m, um, just… tired.” 

_ Really? You seem more nervous than tired. What’s going on, Maya? Why is everyone suddenly walking on eggshells around us? _

“So, have you, uh… have you… um… have you seen all of the house, yet?” She was clearly grasping at straws for something to say, as that was obviously not what she’d been trying to say just a moment earlier. 

The other guy rolled his eyes and shook his head, then turned to walk into the master bedroom, the one they decided Krieg was going to take. Whatever reasons they had for agreeing to let him have the single room to himself were a mystery to him, but he wasn’t about to complain. Honestly, he had to agree with them that him sharing a room with one of the others was not the best idea, especially considering how he’d woken up back at the raider camp. Talking in his sleep, he could understand, but screaming? Lashing out? The fact that he’d apparently struck Salvador and tried to  _ run away  _ while he was still sleeping? Krieg had no idea he did any of those things beforehand, and while it wasn’t necessarily surprising, it wasn’t something he’d anticipated. Hell, the fact that they were even still willing to share the  _ house  _ with him after that was a miracle on its own. 

The other guy took another look around. The bed, which had been made up with at least a little bit of care, was rumpled from Gaige clamoring all over it. 

He turned to push the ajar door open the rest of the way, and as he suspected, it led to a bathroom. A pair of switches turned on a row of lights above a sink immediately to the left; a shower and tub was against the back wall, and a toilet with a broken seat between them. It was a lot cleaner than he’d have expected, considering the state of the rest of the house. 

Of course, if he actually wanted to  _ use  _ it, there was one problem.

Stepping inside the bathroom, Krieg ducked under the shower’s curtain rod and stood inside the tub, looking down rather disdainfully at the shower head that hung roughly level with his chin. 

_ Oh, now this is just  _ great _ .  _

Turning his head to look back through the door, Krieg watched as Maya pulled aside one of the curtains to peak out the window.

“Blaue Dame.” The other guy called over, disgruntled.

“What?” She asked blandly, preoccupied by something outside. He waited and watched as she pulled back from the window and looked over, an amused feeling creeping up into his chest as she processed the situation and screwed her own face up.

Realization dawning on her, Maya released the curtain and clutched her gut, sputtering as she started to laugh at the ridiculousness. The other guy smirked a bit, unable to help himself. “Oh, by the  _ stars!”  _ She exclaimed, pulling her echo out and holding it up.

“Wait.” Her smile faltered as she lowered her arm. “Are you ok with me taking a picture?" The other guy stared for a moment. Krieg could feel a great deal of conflicting feelings from him, wanting to say yes, but not wanting to risk endangering himself. Ultimately, the desire to see her smile and laugh again won out, and the other guy nodded reluctantly. 

Her smile returned double-time, and the fire under Krieg’s skin flared up as the pit in his stomach grew. He could tell the other guy was already regretting his decision to acquiesce, but it was too late to go back. 

Once she put her echo back down, Krieg stepped out of the shower. Maya’s laughter died down until she was giggling softly. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I found that so amusing, I just…” She trailed off into another fit of giggling and snorting that made his heart skip a beat. The other guy furrowed his brows in distress at the feeling.

_ That was pretty damn adorable. _

A sound from her echo took both of them by surprise, shaking Maya from her little fit. When she answered the call, Gaige’s voice shrieked through the speaker. 

“Oh. My.  _ GOD!  _ That is the  _ BEST  _ thing I have seen  _ all day!” _ The teen cackled hysterically, and in the background, Krieg could hear Salvador let out a mild chuckle.

“Oh, oh man…” Gaige started, “Ok, I’ll, uh, I’ll try and see if I can- if I can fix it for ya, alright?” She said in between wheezing and gasping for air. The connection ended. 

The other guy wasn’t entirely sure to feel about it. Krieg found himself feeling a little bit happy at the joviality, only there was uncertainty and fear underneath it all. Deep down, the act of someone laughing and enjoying themselves not only in his presence, but specifically because of him was familiar, something that he knew he must have experienced before… well,  _ before,  _ even if he couldn’t remember. 

Underneath the lightness in his chest was the fire that never went out, stoked by the sudden fear of what would happen next. The other guy didn’t know what was going to happen, had no way of anticipating how things would proceed from there; it was an uncertainty he hadn’t had the luxury of knowing in his short memory, and that uncertainty scared the hell out of him. 

Putting her echo away, Maya gave him a reassuring smile and jerked her head towards the bedroom door. “C’mon, big guy, let’s go see if we can clean this place up at all.” 

Following her lead, Krieg trailed after Maya as she did a more thorough search of the house. They discovered a door at the bottom of the stairs, directly across from them, that led to the house’s main bathroom. It was set up much the same as the one upstairs, although the contents of a medicine cabinet above the sink had been strewn about the floor and the shower curtain torn to shreds. 

Another door across from the one they entered led to a laundry room, with a washer and dryer pushed against the right wall and a shelf of moldering cardboard boxes on the left. The laundry room must have doubled as a pantry, or at least some kind of storage, as the boxes all contained canned food and yet more boxes of non-perishable goods. Though they looked pretty old, they weren't nearly as bad as whatever the hell he’d eaten back in that ghost town. Some basic cleaning supplies were scattered along the lower shelves and propped up in the corners.

A sweep of the kitchen led them to finding that the power to the fridge had long since gone out, and when they opened it, they were greeted with a sight and smell that made even Krieg gag. Christ in heaven, how long had the shit in there been aging? 

The cupboards were mostly bare, with a few more non-perishables stuffed into the corners, and the sink contained a single rusted cast iron pan, dry as a bone. He wasn’t sure why, but the sight of the lone pan languishing away struck a chord somewhere in the back of his mind. His fingers twitched as he stared at it, scandalized at the state it was in and itching to return it to a seasoned, well-oiled sheen. How could anyone treat their cast iron like that? 

Maya opened the windows and the front door, propping it open with a heavy rock sitting off to the side of the entryway. Under her direction, Krieg peeled the rug that had been in front of the door off the hardwood floor and held it up outside while Maya smacked it with a broom. He had to close his eyes and turn his head away to avoid inhaling as much of the dirt flying off the damned thing as he could.

When he opened his eyes again, he was greeted by the sight of the other four casually making their way down the street back to the house. Axton and Gaige both had bags in each of their hands, while Salvador carried what looked like several thin boxes? As they got closer, he became aware of a warm, delicious smell wafting through the air that made his stomach tie itself into knots. He only vaguely heard Maya telling him he could put the rug down, his attention shifting to the others. 

Once again, Maya said something to him, wrenching his attention back to her. She had started to sweep the floor inside the kitchen and around the door, dust and debris raining down over the steps, and when she stepped back and motioned towards him, Krieg set the rug back down on the now clean -  _ cleaner,  _ at least - floor. 

His stomach lurched and howled as the smell of food only continued to grow. 

Having noticed the others’ arrival as well, Maya had him help her pull the table and chairs away from the wall, wiping the dust off the tabletop with a scrap of cloth while Krieg set the chairs up. There were seven chairs in total, so he simply set the extra down in the corner near the door to the garage. 

Once the chairs were set up, Maya shed her blue jacket and draped it over the back of a chair before taking a seat.

Salvador was first through the door, raising the boxes with a triumphant “hey!” and setting them down on the table. The short man wasted no time opening the top box and claiming the first slice, stepping aside to let Axton set his bags down while he proceeded to consume damn near half of the slice in one bite. Gaige set her bags down on one of the chairs and set the boxes - three in total - open side by side.

Krieg had no objections whatsoever when the other guy took a seat at one end of the table and claimed his own slice. 

_ Ah, hell yeah… _

If the promise of safety hadn’t been enough to wholly convince the other guy that staying in Sanctuary was in their best interests, then surely  _ that  _ would. How did the saying go? The way to a man’s heart was through his stomach? The saying made him scoff at the ridiculousness of it, but where the other guy was concerned, who knew? There was always a chance that it could ring true for him, and if real, good food was what kept his alter ego from going back to sleeping in the dirt and eating raw skag, then he’d take it. 

The vault hunters conversed and joked with one another, but Krieg had entirely given up on paying them any attention, shifting his focus to the pizza in front of him. Pushing the mask up, he followed Salvador’s lead and chomped half the slice in one go. God  _ damn,  _ the soup that Salvador had made when they got up had been good, but there was nothing like munching on a hot, greasy pizza at the end of the day. With two more bites, the slice was gone, and he was reaching for a second, and then a third. 

Before he could go for a fourth, the sound of Gaige exclaiming loudly distracted him.

“Jesus fucking  _ Christ,  _ dude, save some for the rest of us!” She said. Wiping his mouth off with the back of his bandaged forearm, Krieg pulled the mask back down so he could see. The bags her and Axton had been carrying appeared to have contained copious amounts of beer, judging from the collection of brown bottles on the other end of the table. 

Pulling a set of keys from his jeans, Salvador popped the cap off one of the beers and handed it to Axton, then another he handed to Maya. “Big boy’s got a big appetite.” He said as he popped the cap off a third and set it in front of Krieg. “‘Sides, if three really ain’t enough for us, we can always just get more.” Salvador popped the cap off a fourth and final beer, then tipped it back. 

Gaige looked affronted. “Oh, come ON, you’re not gonna open one for me?”

Setting the beer down with a satisfied “ah,” Salvador pulled a chair out and sat. “Hell no, hermana, we got that soda for a reason, and it ain’t for me, that’s for damn sure!” 

“It sure as fuck ain’t for me.” Axton muttered into the mouth of his beer.

“But you didn’t have a problem with me drinkin’ on the boat!” Gaige recoiled as if she couldn’t believe the audacity.

“Yeah, the  _ one  _ time. You still got a lotta growin’ up to do, hermana, and I ain’t about to sit ‘n’ let ya drink like a fish on my watch.” There was that firmness in his voice, but there was no anger in it. Gaige must have sensed it, too, because she relented with an exaggerated groan and a roll of her eyes. 

Pulling the mask back up, Krieg listened to them joke amongst one another as he took a sip off the bottle Salvador set in front of him.

_ Hmm… not bad. A bit warmer than I’d prefer, though.  _

He reached for his fourth slice, and since he now had something in him, the other guy didn’t immediately inhale it, washing it down with the beer. 

What was he even going to do afterwards? It was getting pretty late; they’d been awake for quite a while, and the sun was finally starting to dip below the horizon, but Krieg was at a loss for what he was supposed to do now that he was in line to join the Crimson Raiders. 

Huh. It felt weird to even think that. Four days earlier, he would never have entertained the thought that he might have a shot at joining the Raiders. Hell, even if they didn’t want him in their ranks, he was still miles above where he thought he’d be. An actual house with other people who didn’t instantly hate his presence. Most of them, anyways. 

As far as Krieg was concerned, he was living the high life. There was a room upstairs that he could officially call  _ his,  _ with a  _ real  _ bed and a  _ bathroom,  _ a fucking  _ bathroom. _ It dawned on him, suddenly, that as long as the water still worked, he could just go up and take a shower whenever he wanted. Fuck, he could even take a goddamn  _ bath  _ if he wanted. 

The other guy grimaced at the thought, gulping down the last of his beer.

Ok… maybe he couldn’t, but he still had the option, which was a helluva lot more than he had out in the desert. 

A shower would be nice, though… 

The other guy grabbed a fifth slice, savoring the taste as he munched on it. Axton was telling a story about some op he ran with Dahl some few years prior, something about taking out an entire team of Vladof bears on his own. Salvador and Gaige teased him over something he said that Krieg missed, but he certainly didn’t miss the burst of laughter that resulted from it, including the series of giggle-snorts from Maya. Damn… why did her laugh have to be so cute? The fire burned. 

Once he swallowed the rest of the slice, the other guy pulled the mask down again and stood, turning his back to the others and meandering over to the stairs. He was about to make his way up when a shout from the table stopped him.

“Oh, shit, Krieg, hold up a second, dude!” Gaige pushed her chair back, the legs scraping loudly along the floors. She ran up to him and leaned against the arch. “If you gimme a minute to get DT out, I can get my tools and fix that shower head for ya, that cool?” 

Krieg stared at her for a moment. “Grind ‘em.” He growled. Gaige let out a quiet “yes!” and scurried off to the garage. Taking a seat at the base of the steps, he listened to the others at the table. From the garage, he could faintly hear the sound of Deathtrap digistructing, followed by what he assumed was Gaige rummaging through something. Another moment, and the garage door slammed shut as Gaige jogged back inside, toting a bag of tools in one hand as she passed Krieg on the steps. 

When he caught up with her, Gaige was standing in the shower, staring up at the shower head with a concentrated look on her face. 

“Hey, can you grab me a chair from downstairs? This’ll be SO much easier if I can get closer.” She asked, glancing over at him. 

The other guy obliged without question, grabbing the chair he’d shoved into the corner and bringing it up. Gaige had set her tool bag down inside the tub and was digging through it when he set the chair down. 

“Sorry I’m doing this, like,  _ right now.”  _ She said without looking up. “It’s just, if I don’t get it done immediately, I’ll end up forgetting and it’ll take me, like, a long ass time to remember and get it done, y’know?”

_ Yeah, I get it.  _

The other guy grunted. 

He watched as Gaige unscrewed the metal clasp that the shower head sat in, periodically looking back over to him as she slowly pushed it up the wall until it was at a satisfactory height, then screwed it back into the wall. 

She hopped down off the chair and began to put her tool bag back together. “Great! The first of many broke-ass household fixes is donezo! I think the water heater is still working, but if you do turn on the shower or the faucet, let it run for a minute or so. If I had to guess, the water’s been sittin’ for a helluva long time, and there’s no telling how gross it’ll be when it gets turned back on.” 

Gaige hefted the chair in one arm and her tools in the other and shuffled out. Stopping in the door to the hall, she set the chair down and turned to him. 

“Hey, Krieg, I know the others might not act like it, but I’m glad you decided to stick with us.” The easy-going flippant tone in her voice slipped away a bit.

Blinking, the other guy opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, he merely reached his bandaged arm out and patted her on the head, ruffling her hair, which was still a tangled mess. She seemed to brighten at the motion, grinning from ear-to-ear as her eyes lit up. 

There was something about the kid, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on that made his chest ache. He thought she reminded him of someone else, or something else, but he couldn’t remember who, or what, it was supposed to be, let alone  _ why.  _

“You’re a pretty cool guy, you know that?” She said as he pulled his arm back. “Well, ‘night, dude!” And with that, Gaige hefted the chair back up and shuffled downstairs. He could still hear the others talking, but the earlier excitement had worn off.

_ …Goodnight. _

Shutting the bedroom door, the other guy groaned and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. After a moment of staring at the floor, he began the painstakingly slow process of removing the bandages, braces, and harness, setting them on the dresser at the foot of the bed. The belt and mask were next. His shoes, he set in front of the closet. 

The floor was cold as hell, but after having his boots on all the goddamn time, it felt kinda nice to get his toes out and feel something under his soles. Of course, the floor was still dusty as hell, and if he looked closely, he could see a few spots where the wood had chipped, leaving splinters just waiting to get stepped on. 

What light had been shining through the window was quickly fading, the remaining light coming from the bathroom. The other guy stood in the bathroom doorway and moved to flip the light off, but stopped halfway. 

Stepping in front of the sink, right eye half closed, Krieg stared down at it. Like everything else, it was dusty and gross, the porcelain lined with streaks of rust dripping from the faucet. There was a medicine cabinet above it, the mirror on it cloudy, filthy, and effectively useless where it wasn’t cracked and chipped. It was empty, save for a few insect carcasses. He thought of what Gaige said about the water lines.

_ Wonder if it even still works at all.  _

The other guy turned one of the knobs.

It took several seconds, but Krieg soon heard a gurgling sound coming from the faucet, followed shortly by a spurt of rust-colored water vomiting out.

_ Agh, that’s nasty. _

The other guy made a  _ humph  _ noise as if to say “no shit.”

“I always  _ wanted  _ a tetanus shake.”

_ Well, hopefully it clears soon.  _

Sure enough, after watching it sputter for several seconds, the water began to clear, and soon it was running more or less clean. He shut the faucet off.

He tried out the faucet in the shower, as well, kneeling over the lip of the tub and letting the gross water flow out until it was clean. Instead of turning it off, however, the other guy simply stared at the water as it went down the drain.

_ You know, there’s gotta be a towel around here somewhere, if we looked. _

The other guy frowned, uncertain.

_ I bet it would feel nice after all that time outside. _

He stared for several more seconds before whining and standing up. A pin in the faucet redirected the flow of the water, and he pulled the curtain shut part of the way and waited for the grime to clear out of the shower head.

The cupboard under the sink was also empty, but he did find a few towels and some moth-eaten clothes in the closet. 

Setting one of the towels on the toilet, Krieg peeled his jeans off and tossed them onto the bed, then pushed the door shut behind him and climbed under the water.

It was a little colder than he anticipated, and he jumped a little at the shock. After some adjustments to the temperature, he stood up straight and let the water hit him in the face. It stung a bit where he was sunburned, and the scarring on his arms was especially tender, but god _ damn  _ was it nice. 

Like everything else, he couldn’t remember the last time he had a proper shower, if ever. Oh, sure, the woman in charge of him back at the preserve had insisted on him remaining clean, but “shower time” had consisted of him getting tossed into a cold room with a tile floor and a drain and blasted with cold water from a hose. He would have been thankful that the other guy’s emergence had forced them to stop, as he became far too unruly for them to handle, but he had a difficult time being thankful for anything that had happened in his short memory.

It occurred to him that despite the various unpleasantness that had happened over the last Pandoran day, if given the chance again, he’d do it again without a second thought. He knew that no matter how much he griped and tried to make things difficult, the other guy would, too. Hell, it almost made him want to sit down and thank God that he’d found a chance to make himself better. 

Almost. 

Letting out a long sigh, Krieg’s shoulders slumped as he started to relax, some of the tension in him melting under the hot water. There wasn’t any kind of soap in the place that he knew of, so he settled on the age-old technique of scraping the dirt and grime off with his nails. 

He didn’t know how long he stood under the water, the exhaustion from the day seeping up through his bones and into his brain, the fire under his skin tamped down to a bed of warm coals. Eventually, the water started to cool off, and he took that as a sign that he ought to get out. 

The other guy shut the water off and reached through the curtain for the towel, trying to limit his exposure to the colder part of the bathroom. 

He was in the process of drying his face off when he pulled the curtain back and stepped out, only when he moved the wet fabric away from him, he came face to face with the last thing he had ever expected to see. 

Krieg didn’t know it was there, hadn’t seen it beforehand, and was caught completely off guard when he looked up to see the face - and body - of a stranger looking back at him. Startled, he jolted back, letting out a sharp shout of surprise at the person in front of him, and then another when his calves hit the tub and he stumbled backwards. He tried to catch himself as he fell, but there was nothing he could do, and before he knew it, he was laying in the tub with his back to the wall and legs hanging over the edge, feet brushing the tile. 

_ Son of a bitch! What the fuck? _

His heart was pounding, mind racing as he processed that he was alone, and that on the back of the door, the one spot he hadn’t thought to look, was a mirror. 

Unlike the one above the sink, this one was still more or less intact, and only the edges were dirty. From where he was, Krieg could still see his reflection. More importantly, he could see the face staring back at him. 

The other guy pushed himself up and draped the towel along the floor, then sat on his knees in front of the mirror, planting his hands on either side of it as he stared wide eyed at himself. 

_ What… what the fuck? That’s- that’s me? I mean, that’s  _ us?

Flynt's words surfaced in the back of his mind. One ugly bastard_… _

It wasn’t… bad. He didn’t think  _ bad  _ was the right word, but it definitely wasn’t what he would call  _ good.  _ The man staring back at him looked… well, he looked like shit, to put it simply. No, correction: he looked like he’d  _ been  _ through shit, that much was obvious. And true. 

The man staring at him had a set of hard features: a strong jaw, mouth hard-set into a frown, almond-shaped eyes squinting suspiciously from under a pair of dark eyebrows, nose crooked from a break healed wrong, and beat to hell and back.

The most obvious thing that he noticed was his goddamn  _ eye! _ What the hell was up with his right eye? His left was the same dark brown it had always been, but the right eye… The iris had discolored to purple, a dull lilac color he’d come to associate with eridium and slag, although if he leaned in and looked closely, he could see a faint ring of brown around the pupil, just barely visible. Maya was right, though, it did have a slight glow to it. 

The blood vessels in the white of the eye had turned from red to purple, as well, and for a moment, Krieg wondered what would happen if one of the vessels burst. Would his eye turn red with blood like it was supposed to, or would it turn that slagged purple? Or would it be a mixture of both? The white, itself, had taken on the faintest purple tint.

However, the weirdest thing wasn’t the discoloration, but the… he wanted to say it was veins, but he didn’t think the veins in the face worked like that. There were several hair-thin lines - or maybe tendrils was a better word - of purple running from his lower eyelid down about a centimeter, and rising from the top eyelid to just above his brow. They were so barely visible that he was surprised he even noticed them, and for a moment he doubted they were even there, but they seemed to have the same glow at the iris. It didn’t look like veins corrupted with slag, but he couldn’t focus on them enough to figure it out. 

Once he tore his eyes away from his, well,  _ eye,  _ Krieg’s gaze drifted up to his brows. They seemed to be the only hair left on him, and even they were a bit singed. A long, thin scar ran down the center of his left brow, going from about the middle of his forehead down to about the middle of his cheek. What was that from? It looked old as hell, there was no way it could’ve been from his time in the preserve. In the outside corner of the same brow, he found another scar, this one short and ropy, like a bit of flesh had been ripped out. There were two similar scars on the outside edge of the right one, as well. 

For a brief moment, he held an impression in his mind, a vague ghost from the early days of the preserve before they left him alone, of someone taunting him and tearing several things out of his face. 

There were several small scars along his cheekbones and jaw, the pale reminders of Jack’s visits that were almost never allowed to heal before being reopened and made worse. 

Perhaps the strangest thing that had nothing to do with slag was the tear in his right nostril, like something had been pushed into the flesh and then ripped through. 

_ Wait, could it have been a piercing? I don’t remember having any, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t.  _

It would explain the gashes in his brows, as well. 

Drifting lower, he found a scar close to the center of his lower lip. This one, he knew about; he didn’t remember how or when he got it, but during the later months of his imprisonment, it ended up getting reopened by some asshole with a gun and an inability to follow orders, resulting in Krieg getting the butt-end bashed into his face. 

On the left side, he found yet another spot where something had been forced through his flesh: a small dot directly underneath the lip, tough and pink from scar tissue. Rising from about the middle of his jaw, also on the left, another long, thin scar ran some three centimeters along his jawline. It looked far older than any of the others, and was in the process of fading. 

Krieg sat there for some time, both him and the other guy mesmerized by the face he had no memory of, taking in the knowledge that that was  _ him,  _ that he was an actual person underneath the mask. At some point, he removed his hands from the door and started poking at and prodding his face, running his fingers over the scars. God, there was so much to take in; scars from the preserve, from before, the faint red marks of acne scars from the youth he couldn’t recall, a light splattering of faint freckles, and underneath it all, the creases in his skin that signaled the marching of time, that not even amnesiac mutants were immune to the inevitable effects of age. 

By the time he stood back up, everything from the knees down had started to tingle, and the joints themselves screamed as he straightened them back out. 

It was strange, seeing his reflection. Realistically, he already had a fairly decent idea of what his body looked like, but to actually  _ see  _ it was weird, to say the least. He hadn’t really noticed the slouch before, but if he stood up straight, it all but disappeared. 

The other guy spent several minutes trying to maneuver so as to see the scars across his back and shoulders, to no avail. Eventually, he gave up, and opened the door.

The bedroom was dark as hell compared to the brightness of the bathroom, but he found his sight adjusting quickly to the dimness. It looked like that fucked up eye was good for something, after all. 

He wasn’t really sure how to feel about seeing himself. On the one hand, it gave him a sense of physical identity to be able to reaffirm that he was an actual person, but on the other hand, he almost wished he didn’t have to look at his eye. It creeped him out to see that weird glow contrasted with his normal dark eye.

Whatever. He was too tired to think too hard about it. It was a problem for future Krieg. 

He grabbed his pants off the bed and tossed them to the floor, then pulled the top blanket up from where it was tucked in and shook it out. Despite the faint musk coming from the bed, he wasn’t really all that worried about it. There was a pair of pillows under the blanket, and with the encroaching tides of exhaustion flooding into his head, that was all he cared about. 

_ I’d say this has been a pretty productive day, all things considered.  _

He wouldn’t call it a good day, but productive seemed appropriate. The other guy apparently didn’t give a single shit about what Krieg had to say, as he didn’t respond in any way as he climbed under the cover, hugging the extra pillow to his chest. 

_ Goodnight, big guy.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I say I've been hyperfocused on Fallout 4? I meant Paladin Danse specifically. 
> 
> Anyways, I had to take a break to draw up a floor plan of the house 'cause I kept forgetting where everything was supposed to be, which can be found here corvidexoskeleton.tumblr.com/post/613050536242167808


	16. Life Is A Highway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang makes a groupchat, Krieg wears dad jeans, and Maya contemplates life

Morning brought with it a damned mess. When Krieg woke up, once again tangled and sweaty in the blanket, the others had started the slow process of cleaning the place up. The other guy had been content enough to help and do what they asked him to, and though he would have rathered gone out to sink his axe into a few heads, the constant motion of scrubbing the floors and all the hard-to-reach places the others couldn’t get to at least kept him busy, kept the restless fire from burning too hot. 

Krieg enjoyed it. He enjoyed dipping his hands into a bucket of warm, soapy water to rinse out the rag he used to clean dust and mystery stains out of the wood floor. He enjoyed scouring the seemingly endless supply of pots, pans, cookware, and other dishes with Salvador, the two of them standing at the sink while the shorter man rambled on about some story or another. He enjoyed helping Gaige get the garage door shut again, even if it refused to budge an inch afterwards. He enjoyed helping her move everything around until they were at least better organized, if not clean. Even if he was just being directed and doing what he was told, it felt good to do something productive, something relatively calm.

The other guy wanted to hate it. He scowled and grumbled, made scathing comments that no one but himself understood, rolled his eyes whenever someone asked him to move something heavy and Salvador was busy, but between the sound of the heavy metal and synthwave Gaige had blasting from the garage and the vault hunters thanking him every time he completed a task, Krieg could feel that the venom in his voice wasn’t _ entirely _sincere. The big guy would never admit it, not even to himself.

The whispering voices had been easier to ignore, though, something even the other guy could appreciate. 

It took the entire Pandoran night, but between the six of them, they managed to make short work of the house; all of the laundry that they decided to keep after going through it all - the vault hunters selected only a few articles from all the clothing they’d found in the rooms, while the majority ended up taken to a donation box somewhere in town - was washed, dried, and put away, the kitchen was organized, the bedrooms set up. Salvador even found a small general store run by a merchant out of an old house in town to get a few basic supplies for the bathrooms and kitchen.

Gaige and Salvador had both insisted, quite forcefully, that they help Krieg clean and sort through the room he’d been given. The closet only contained one or two towels and a few jackets, while the dresser held the clothing that must have belonged to the previous occupants. It was all everyday stuff: t-shirts, pants, socks, underwear, and a few button ups that weren’t stained with grease. 

If he had his way, the other guy wouldn’t have even bothered sorting through any of it, but after a bit of prodding from Salvador, they discovered that some of the pants they found were close enough in size to warrant him at least trying to see if they fit. He adamantly refused to consider wearing anything resembling a shirt, though. 

Much to his surprise, two of them actually fit, and were honestly far more more comfortable than his stolen pair. The only issue he could see with swapping them out was the whole fire thing, as he didn’t think jeans usually came fireproof. Not that the other guy seemed to mind, because he refused to put his orange pants back on once the jeans came out of the dryer. 

One thing that kept bothering him was that no one seemed to have jack shit to say about him. Sure, the other guy was happy to have everyone stay out of their business, but it was the fact that by all rights they _ should _have had a lot to talk about and ask. None of them tried to ask about his violent awakening when they got to the mainland, or even bring up the question of whether or not it would happen again, and how much of an issue it would be when it inevitably did. They didn’t try to ask about where he’d been or what he’d been doing before the train, even though they had plenty of things to ask and tell each other about their own business. Maya never asked about what he’d been doing on the train track. They didn’t even try to get to know him like they did with each other. Not even Gaige.

It was clear to him that there was something they all knew, or suspected, about him that they didn’t want to talk about, he just didn’t know what it could be. Krieg spent a good chunk of time wondering if they knew about Hyperion, wondering if maybe they knew that he’d escaped their slag lab. He could tell that Commander Roland had some recognition in his eyes when he saw Krieg, but the others were new to Pandora; it was likely they could tell something was wrong, just not _ what _it was. 

The only explanation was that that doctor said something to them. But was it general information? A warning? Did they ask about him specifically? Or maybe they simply pieced together a theory based on their collective knowledge? It took them a good ten minutes or so to get to the clinic, could Commander Roland have warned the doctor about him, who in turn warned the vault hunters to stay away? He didn’t know. Maybe they didn’t have a clue and were just starting to get tired of him. Maybe they didn’t care. Or maybe worst of all, they were under the impression that his head was full of dust and violence, that he simply wasn’t there enough to bother with. It would hardly be the first time someone made that assumption. 

That thought hurt a lot more than he expected.

He wanted to grab the vault hunters by the shoulders and tell them exactly what was wrong with him, wanted to march on over to that doctor and explain what he could remember of what the scientists did to him and ask for help. It frustrated him to no end that the help he wanted, the help he _ needed, _was so close that all he had to do was reach out and grab it, yet still couldn’t do a damn thing to actually get it.

At the end of the day, there wasn’t anything he could do about any of it, so he let it go for the time being. 

By the time they finished cleaning, there were still a few more hours until the sun would rise. From what he overheard from the vault hunters, they could expect to hear from Commander Roland, or some other raiders, to be initiated and join the fight for real in the morning. He had his doubts that they would let someone like him join in earnest, but if they did, then he’d try his absolute damndest to make sure the other guy stayed in line, or at least close to it, and lived up to their expectations. 

There was nothing left for him to do but to wait and see what the morning brought with it.

* * *

Dawn couldn’t come soon enough for Maya. Between the servants rushing at her every step on Athenas and the monks insisting she was above the trivial matters of _ mere humans _, in their words, she found she had little to no knowledge when it came to something as domestic as cleaning a house. She’d seen people clean the monastery before, watched as they swept marble floors and hung rugs from balconies to beat the dirt from them with sticks, she’d been in the kitchens and saw how the cooks scrambled to make sure her next meal was ready on time while scullions scoured everything down in their wake, but it was never something she’d ever expected to take part in. All things considered, Maya realized somewhere amidst all the dust and debris of the house in Sanctuary that she probably should have taken it into account when she set out on her own.

Salvador, Axton, and Gaige were all familiar with the routine, the tedium of getting everything in order, even Zer0 and Krieg seemed to at least know the basics and how to apply themselves, but Maya found herself at a loss for what to do. Where could she apply herself? How could she put her particular skills to use? What could she stand to learn from the others? She decided to start by confessing her ignorance to them and asked what she should do. 

Gaige was more than happy to help her, directing her in a confusingly scattered way until Axton and Zer0 stepped in to provide clarification. The soldier showed Maya and Zer0 how to do a load of laundry, how to operate the washing machine and dryer, then how to fold and organize the clothing and linens before separating them into “keep” and “donate,” and finally putting the “keep” pile away. 

The inherent tameness and complicated simplicity of it all boggled Maya’s mind, making her feel both like an outsider and like a normal person. For a while, she could forget about being Maya the siren and be just Maya.

Despite it all, though, underneath the extended lesson on how to be a person, there was that anxious knife sitting in her gut, turning in anticipation of what the Crimson Raiders would have for them come morning. Would they send them out to complete a series of tasks? Would they be separated, as was more likely, and sent off on missions with other raiders until their trust could be completely proven to Commander Roland and the other Raiders in charge? If the Raiders were really as desperate as they seemed, maybe they would just get right down to business and immediately integrate them into their ranks. Maya had her doubts that the six of them would be kept all together; it wouldn’t make sense to keep a specific group together for no discernible reason. 

She wondered what kind of people she’d be fighting alongside, and whether or not she ought to reveal to them she was a siren. Would they accept her for who she was, or would they treat her the same way everyone on Athenas has? She had every intention of telling Commander Roland eventually, she just hoped that he would take the news with grace.

If not… well, if she really had to defend herself, or leave… Maya didn’t really like that thought, but if the worst came to pass, she was prepared to deal with the consequences. 

When the morning did finally roll around and the sun began its slow trek across the sky once again, Maya found herself sitting at the downstairs table with a very hungover Axton and a surprisingly grumpy Salvador. She prided herself on being a morning person, and as such felt ready to take on whatever the Raiders threw at her, but it seemed that her new housemates weren’t so lucky. 

As she made her way through a bowl of leftovers from the previous night’s dinner - some kind of pasta with a meaty sauce that Axton and Gaige slapped together - Maya watched the two men struggle to function; Axton looked like shit with his previously styled hair sticking up in places and squashed in others, his head cradled in one hand while he picked at his own food. Salvador was no better, wearing a sour expression and his own spiked hair blown to the side like he’d been standing in the wind. None of them said anything to each other. 

It wasn’t until after they were joined by a groggy Gaige in an oversized t-shirt that they were startled by a series of loud knocks at the door. When she answered it, Maya was greeted by a helmeted raider, whom she identified as the helpful young man Raleigh from the other day once he spoke, telling her and the others to meet at the entrance to Sanctuary within the hour. 

The four of them finished eating and prepared themselves, making sure to wake up Krieg so he would have some time as well, then made their way to the gate. Zer0 joined them after they arrived, jumping down from the high wall and throwing up a peace sign in greeting.

Outside the gates was a group of Crimson Raiders, some of them wearing the same red armor, some wearing civilian attire, some of them dressed in makeshift scrap armor, with Commander Roland at the forefront of them speaking in hushed tones with another helmeted raider. Within several minutes, Commander Roland finished whatever business he had with the helmeted raider and dismissed them with a salute before turning to the rest of them, scanning the faces of those present. 

Getting right to the point, Commander Roland explained that the Raiders present were to set out to a specific location in order to clear the area of any remaining bandits and set up an outpost, and, if possible, retrieve a civilian to be brought to Sanctuary. It turned out that the vault hunters weren’t the only new people, because Commander Roland then proceeded to explain to the raiders that they would be joined by a few recruits who had yet to be sent out to the field. He tasked them with verifying that the recruits not only stayed alive, but were properly trained and informed. 

Maya found herself paying undivided attention to the Commander when he spoke, and when she looked around at everyone around her, she found they were, too. She wasn’t entirely sure what his goals, or the Raiders’ goals, were in their entirety, but she couldn’t deny that he had a certain charisma about him; there was a firm confidence in his voice that made her want to stop and listen to what he had to say, that he was someone who knew what he was talking about. Although Commander Roland seemed a trustworthy man, Maya knew all too well just how much trustworthy men could hide. 

Would he still be calm and collected when she inevitably told him about her identity, or would the facade drop? Would he pull the mask aside and try to use her for his own gain under the guise of “the greater good?” It was too soon for her to tell, and Maya opted to simply wait and watch until she felt certain in her decision. She couldn’t allow herself to become trapped by another greedy man looking to exploit her like Brother Sophis had. 

Once he finished explaining the nature of their mission, Commander Roland began issuing orders on who would be sent where and what their specific roles would be. Half of the some 20 or so Raiders present would be sent to what the Commander referred to as “Fishguts Outpost” to set up a Crimson Raiders encampment, while the other half would do a sweep of the surrounding area to make sure it was cleared of bandits and hostile wildlife. 

Including Maya and the other vault hunters, there were 13 recruits in total. Four of them - a hulking behemoth of a woman with a shock of graying hair, a person dressed in furs, their face obscured by a headscarf, Salvador, and Krieg - were to go with the sweep team, while the rest would accompany the encampment team. 

Having finished briefing them, the Commander saluted the raiders, bid them good luck, and dismissed them. He turned to head back into the city, and Maya’s last glimpse of him before the gate shut behind him was of the man leaning into his shoulder to speak into his echo.

Maya followed the raiders from Sanctuary across the bridge to the gate they’d been stopped at when they arrived. At the Catch-A-Ride, five snow runners were deployed for the sweep team, and three runners and two larger technicals with a bed and trailer each were deployed for the encampment team, all of them painted to blend into the environment. Supplies were loaded onto the technicals and secured, with several of the raiders occupying the space left over to make sure they stayed secure on the way.

The sweep team went over their gear and loaded into their runners - one recruit and two raiders per runner, except for the fifth, which had three raiders - while the encampment team were called to gather around a helmeted raider in red armor. The raider, whom Maya was assuming was leading the team, gave out orders regarding who would be in which runner with who and what their specific tasks were. Once the orders were given, Maya climbed onto one of the technical beds with another recruit - a young lady missing an eye and part of her nose, wearing bits of salvaged metal and scrap leather for protection - and a raider in dyed red furs. 

It took a few more minutes for both teams to make sure everything was ready, verifying the equipment was secure and everyone had their echos tuned in to the same frequencies. 

As she watched and listened to the things going on around her, Maya wondered if she had made the right decision. Joining a ragtag resistance against a corrupt corporation was the last thing she'd anticipated doing when she left, and if she was honest, she wasn't entirely sure how good their odds of victory were. The concept of the corporations ruling the galaxy and the systems they governed wasn't exactly foreign to Maya, but because of how secluded and in the dark she'd been all her life, it seemed more transitory than anything. There was no doubt in her mind that it was a very real and serious issue, she just had trouble grasping, the severity of it, as it was something she'd been previously unaware of for the most part. 

The recruit squatting next to her introduced herself to the raider as Smoke, and raider introduced herself as Darrell. Smoke had a strange accent that Maya was unfamiliar with - an airy, almost jaunty lilt to her voice - while Darrell sounded like all the other natives she'd met so far. Maya wondered if Smoke was a stranger to Pandora as well, or if there were more dialects spoken on the planet that she had yet to hear. 

Only half listening as the two discussed the Crimson Raiders and the nature of their mission, Maya went through her echo and fiddled with the settings, checking her gear and anxiously looking around at everyone else getting themselves together. Her eyes drifted over to the runner Gaige was sat in, the teen inspecting her prosthetic arm with great focus, then over to the driver seat of the second technical, where Axton sat speaking with the encampment team leader. Zer0 was patiently sitting in the turret of a runner, and Salvador was discussing something with the leader of the sweep team, a raider dressed in what resembled the armor of the bandits she and the others had encountered after hitting the mainland. 

Unable to immediately locate where the ever-present and imposing form of Krieg was, a stab of concern twisted her gut. After what Dr. Blanco told them about Hyperion running experiments on people, much of his previous behavior was starting to make more sense. A _ lot _ more sense. Of course, based on some of the other things the doctor said, Maya wondered once again just how… _ present _ the man was, and she knew the others were wondering the same thing. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions and assume the worst, but the thoughts persisted nonetheless, along with a multitude of other questions that continuously cropped up only to lay unanswered. until they could find out more, she was operating under the understanding that he was just _eccentric. _

She soon spotted the man awkwardly standing near one of the sweep team runners, staring down at the recruit in furs who stood before him, speaking. Maya wondered if the cold of the mountains bothered him at all, considering he’d refused to put on a shirt or a jacket.

The voice of the encampment team leader crackled over her echo, giving the orders for them to finish up so they could move out. Within moments, the rest of the two teams piled into the runners and reported themselves as good-to-go. Maya closed out her echo and clipped it back to her belt and braced herself as the technical began moving, pulling her jacket closer to herself. 

Two of the sweep runners led the way, followed by an encampment runner, a supply technical, another encampment runner, the second supply technical, the third encampment runner, and the last three sweep runners bringing up the rear. 

Her conversation with Krieg during their walk from Flynt’s fortress to Hammerlock’s cabin kept resurfacing, the things he’d said replaying again and again in the wake of the new information from Dr. Blanco. What was it that Krieg had said, exactly? Maya concentrated as she tried to recall, watching the landscape as it passed on by in a blur. 

She remembered he said something about someone loving some kind of “maddening soup” and “carcasses bleeding purple” so it was possible that he had been talking about eridium slag; she would have to take another look at that scientist’s notes. At the time, her understanding of what he said was that he’d been imprisoned by Hyperion and had either witnessed something horrible or had been subject to it himself before escaping. Her initial assumption was that he was simply a prisoner subject to torture or mistreatment, especially considering the way he jumped at and shied away from any and all physical contact, but inhumane experimentation? It made far more sense than she liked, and Maya was beginning to understand the man’s situation. 

Could experimentation be the source of his unnaturally high rate of healing? His apparent ability to breathe fire? Was that why his body temperature was above what any other human should be able to survive? 

And his glowing eye… Maya hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since they spoke to Dr. Blanco. The memory of him standing stock straight, covered in blood and smoking, but unharmed. He’d stared at her and the others like an animal caught in the headlights, sunlight peeking through the clouds and playing off of the purple discoloration, entirely different from the normal eye. 

Was that why he was covered in scars? In the brief few seconds she’d gotten a look at his face, it was apparent that he’d been in his fair share of fights, but the degree to which he was beaten was just excessive. Not to mention the numerous ropy, jagged scars that ran across his arms, torso, and back. the pattern of scarring on him, especially on his face, looked as if he'd been restrained and abused.

If he really was subject to experimentation, how long had he been in Hyperion custody? When did he get out? Did he escape on his own, or was he discarded? Or did someone help him get out? Just how long had he been out wandering around by the time Maya found him at the train station?

She’d already had more questions than answers, but for every one she found an answer to, five more sprung up in their place.

Maya shivered as the runners began driving around the base of one of the many mountains surrounding them, the frigid peaks blocking out the sun that had been warming her face. She shifted her weight around to get more comfortable and looked around. Channeling energy through her tattoos to warm herself would be too much of a risk, as she didn’t want to take the chance of the strangers surrounding her noticing. Maya pulled her arms into her jacket and hugged her torso.

As they drove through the mountains, Maya couldn’t help but notice that they were heading back the way she and the others had come from. Were they going back to the bandit camp overlooking the pier? If the idle chatter from Smoke and Darrell was anything to go off of, it sounded like that was the case. 

Commander Roland mentioned them retrieving a civilian, so if they _ were _heading back to the pier, then maybe they would be meeting with Hammerlock again. Maya found herself looking forward to speaking with him again, as he seemed a trustworthy person, and she wanted to ask him if he knew anything regarding sirens, or at least vaults and eridium. 

A blip from her echo distracted her.

Pulling her arms back out, Maya checked her echo to find a message from Gaige.

\--------------------------

** Gaige **

man im freezing my ASS off

\--------------------------

It looked like Gaige had created a group chat with Maya and the others. At the bottom of the screen, she could see that someone else was typing.

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Its not that bad

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

SAYS YOU!!!!!

i hate the cold ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Well maybe if you briught a hat and some gloves like i told you

\--------------------------

**Zer0**

🤭

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

yea but you've got a hood n shit

\--------------------------

**Zer0 **

That’s r0ugh, buddy

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Lol

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

XD

Shes right tho

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

yeah some of us are used to livng inhot places aXTON

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Fuckin cold ass mountains

Freezing my nuts off over here

\--------------------------

Maya smiled a little and started typing.

\--------------------------

**Maya**

Anyone know where we’re going?

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Axton**

The boss man said it was a place called fishrats outpost or somethin right?

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

fishguts outpost

byt yeah

\--------------------------

**Salvador **

Probably that place we stopped at when we got the cars

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Maya**

That was my thought as well. 

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

ugh the drive back there is gonna suck 

\--------------------------

**Axton**

At least your not stuck in a truckbed you turd

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

fuck off!

wait i thought you were driving

why are you on your echo

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Idk

I was supposed to at first

But that chick leading the cmap team put me in one of the trucks

So now im squatting on some tarps

\--------------------------

Maya started to tap out another message, wondering how Krieg was doing since he didn’t seem to be offering any input, but deleted it because she wasn’t sure how to spell his name. Thankfully, someone else beat her to it.

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Did u add the big boy to the group?

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Does he even know how to text

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

ya i added krieg

\--------------------------

Oh. So that was how it was spelled. Maya promptly opened her contacts up and changed his name from “Big Guy” to “Krieg.”

\--------------------------

**Axton **

Hes probably not even reading this

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Turn on read reciepts dumbass

\--------------------------

**Axton**

I cant

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

hold on

\--------------------------

A few seconds later, small grey text showed up at the bottom of the screen. 

_ Seen by Salvador, Zer0, Krieg, Axton _

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

hey krieg i gotta question 

why do you call yourself krieg

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Is that not a name

\--------------------------

**Zer0**

N0

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

no 

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Oh

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Whats it mean then

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

WAR

\--------------------------

A few people started typing at once, but then stopped. No one responded for several moments. War, huh? Maya wondered why he chose that, as well.

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Edgelord

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

It’s my Name

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Wait you can spell???

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

>:(

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

yeah but why did you pick that as your name

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

It was given

\--------------------------

**Axton**

By who

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

Who gave you your Name?

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Idgaf about were he got his name

Why tf you capitalizeing name

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

Habit

\--------------------------

**Axton **

Why the word name specfically?

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

It’s a noun

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

The fuck is a noun

?????

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

you type in german often enough that capital nouns is ahabit?

ok 

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Youre weird

\--------------------------

**Krieg**

UR WEIRD

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Maya**

Not to change the subject, but what do you guys think of the Crimson Raiders thus far? 

I’m not really sure if I trust them yet.

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

idk

\--------------------------

**Zer0**

They seem trustw0rthy

I see n0 reas0n t0 d0ubt

But y0u never kn0w

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Zed trusts Roland, so thats good enouh for me

Damn dude you got some fast fingers

\--------------------------

**Zer0**

😊

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Idk either 

P sure these guys are ex atlas

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

i thought they went under a few years ago

\--------------------------

**Axton**

They did

I remember hearing about them sending the crimson lance out here a while back

But then some shit went down

And hyperion showed up

And nww atlas is toast

I think these guya might be whats left of the lance

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

huh 

weird 

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Yeah

It would explain why some of them wear lance armor

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Maya**

And the name. 

\--------------------------

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Whats the crimson lance

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

the private military of the atlas co. 

\--------------------------

**Axton**

Yeah

\--------------------------

**Salvador**

Oh

\--------------------------

**Gaige**

cept they dont really exist anymore

they used to run eden-5

grew up watching annuel lance parades

fuck those guys lmfao

\--------------------------

Lmfao? Lol? Idk? What did those mean? At the bottom of the screen, above the read receipts, a little note popped up stating that the name of the group was changed to “Motherfuckers Unlimited” by Gaige.

Maya watched the chat as they texted with one another, with occasional input from Zer0. She didn’t have much to say, so she mostly just read what everyone else sent. Krieg didn’t say anything else, but she could see he was at least reading the messages. 

The ride to the target area was cold and tedious. It was made more tolerable by the company, and the few times they were chased by bullymongs offered some amount of distraction. Eventually, Maya closed her echo and was content to keep watch on the scenery, ignoring the constant buzz of notifications from the others.

There was a certain beauty in the landscape surrounding her. Maya had lived her whole life among the lush, vibrant hills and cliffs of Athenas, and the environments of Pandora were something she’d never before had an opportunity to see for herself. The desert she’d arrived in was a shock after being constantly surrounded by plant life, and the dry air and dust almost choking compared to the humidity she was accustomed to, but it was exciting to be somewhere so different from what she knew.

She did have to agree with Gaige and Salvador, though, as she was also unaccustomed to the cold. There hadn’t been many opportunities when they were out on the southern shelf, but now that Maya had a chance to take in her surroundings, she saw that there was something about the stark white snow covering the grey-blue mountains, found herself entranced by the way the sunlight reflected off of the ice to scatter into the clear skies. A bit of fog rolled along the base of the mountains and onto the road, curling around the wheels of the runners as they sped by before the sun burned it away. Maya didn’t think she could recall even a single day of snow on Athenas.

The runners rounded another corner and into a tunnel system, the raiders in the turrets swiveling to make sure they wouldn’t be caught off guard by rogue bullymongs. 

Pulling her arms back into her jacket, Maya thought back to the bandit camp and was reminded of the conversation she’d had with Zer0. She’d been trying to wait until she was a little less busy to think about it, since she didn’t want to distract herself from her goal and risk endangering herself and others because she was too caught up in the past. Unfortunately it was looking like she couldn’t ignore it any longer. 

Zer0 had asked about her abilities, a perfectly normal and logical question that she was in no way surprised by, and yet the question brought up things she hadn’t ever dwelled on to any significant extent. She hadn’t even been consciously aware of the memories it dragged out into the light, as she’d long forgotten about them. 

Maya tried to remember everything she could about her early life and the nurse that took care of her; she considered herself to have a good memory, but the first few years weren’t very clear. They consisted of her feeling safe and loved by a stern, yet kindly woman too old to have children of her own. There were quiet memories of being held and fed by her, of being taught to walk and then run, of sitting in an oversized swinging lounge covered in pillows in the garden while she read to Maya. 

The only thing that evaded Maya was her name. She couldn’t exactly pin down what her name had been, and it made her sad, as if she was somehow betraying the woman for having an imperfect memory. It started with an I, she knew that much, going over various names and sounds in her head as she watched the icy walls of the tunnel turn into one long blurred streak. She rubbed her palms together to try and warm them up.

Izumi. Her name was Izumi. Obaasan Izumi. At least that’s what she told Maya to call her. It could have just been a fault in her memory, or maybe she had simply misheard her, but she could swear that there were a few times when Izumi had called her Mayu instead of Maya. It was probably nothing.

Regardless, Maya had cared a great deal for her. Around the time she turned five years old, Izumi began trying to teach her how to use her head, how to concentrate better and think for herself, to pay attention to what was going on around her. She had also started telling Maya how much she cared for her, promising that she would always be there for her.

Needless to say, Maya had been devastated when one day she woke up and Izumi was simply gone. A monk had woken her up instead of the kindly nurse, and for the next few days she was watched over by a servant who had been under Izumi’s authority. As a child, she didn’t understand why Izumi suddenly left, and she felt betrayed that she had abandoned Maya after everything she said about being there for her. At the time, it had felt like the first of many lies that the Order, and everyone else she trusted, would tell her. 

And then she was approached by brother Sophis. He was familiar in that she’d seen him around the monastery before, but that was as far as her familiarity went. She was playing in the garden, arranging rocks in a line by size as she watched the monk speak to the servant watching her. The servant bowed and left, and the monk approached her. Maya was unsure of his intentions and wanted him to go away, so she threw the rock at him. She wasn’t sure how she did it at the time, and was just as surprised as he was when one of the rocks was suddenly enveloped in a weak purple glow and flew through the air. 

She felt bad about it afterwards, of course. He seemed like a legitimately kind person, what with his steady voice and polite smile. 

From what she heard over the years from other monks and read in the library’s official documents, Sophis wasn’t very high-ranking among the monks’ hierarchy. She didn’t remember who the head monk at the time was, only that he was a grumpy elderly man with a habit of replying to most people with variations of “hmm.” and a frown. He was polite enough during the few times Maya had met him, if stern and a bit judgmental. 

By the time she was around nine or ten, many of the monks in the order either died or disappeared. The ones who died were either of advanced age or in poor health, and the ones that disappeared had been outspoken about certain within the Order and how they ran things, if the things she overheard and gleaned from idle conversation held any truth. 

The only one that seemed out of place was the death of the head monk. From a book documenting the head monks and a ledger the monastery's physician kept of medical records, the head monk had been in perfectly good health. It seemed out of place that someone in otherwise good condition would suddenly suffer from cardiac arrest in the night, but there was no evidence of any kind of foul play. 

At the time, the individual incidents seemed natural enough with little to no correlation to each other, the only thing connecting them being that every time someone was removed from the picture, the only person who stood to gain anything was Sophis. In retrospect, there was very clearly a pattern amongst the various deaths that Maya could recall. For a moment, she almost wished she could go back to Athenas and raid the library once more. 

The runners turned a corner in the tunnels and ran directly over a patch of especially uneven ground, jostling Maya and shaking her from her thoughts. They left the tunnels and drove back into the sunlight. Squinting, Maya held a hand up to shield her eyes as she readjusted to the brightness. The raiders were still a few hours away from their destination, but they had come upon a chunk of road built into the side of a cliff face. The base of a small mountain was to the runners’ right, while a vast expanse of rocky tundra stretched out to the left, and the glittering ocean beyond that. Above her, Elpis hung serene in the clear sky, the Hyperion space station alien and out of place in comparison. 

Maya’s echo crackled as someone started to speak on the frequency shared with the raiders and recruits. Tuning in, she listened as the encampment team leader explained that they had reached the halfway point, and were to pull over and stop once they reached the end of the cliffs.

She checked the time. It had been around three hours since they left Sanctuary. Opening the group chat back up, Maya found that the name had been changed several times in a battle for superiority between Gaige and Axton, with it finally settling on “Thot Hunters,” whatever that meant. Scrolling back up to where she left revealed nothing of importance regarding the mission, devolving from complaining about the Atlas Co. to the four of them getting into a heated debate about video games. 

It wasn’t long before the runners stopped, the raiders pilling out to stretch their legs and make sure they hadn’t lost anything out of the technicals, then they were back on the road. Maya spent the rest of the drive listening to Smoke and Darrell talk about shared experiences and their reasons for joining the Raiders. 

The runners slowed down when they reached a second tunnel system, the sweep team splitting from the group at the entrance.

Setting up the Crimson Raider camp was more tedious than anything; once they reached the cliff outside of the outpost, several raiders started pulling tools and materials from the trailer of the technical Axton was in and got to work repairing the bridge. When they got over, Maya and the other recruits were tasked to clean up the trash and eccentric decorations littering the place while the raiders got to work setting up equipment. 

After everything was more or less set up, the encampment team leader requested that she accompany her and another raider down to the dock, where a boat could be seen approaching. As Maya expected, the boat was none other than the one they liberated from Captain Flynt, with Claptrap waving from the prow. Behind the glass of the cabin, Hammerlock could be seen steering. When the boat was docked and secured, the two stepped off and greeted the raiders.

“A good morning to you!” He said with a salute. “I am relieved to see that my message was well-received.” Hammerlock stepped forward and offered his outstretched hand to the raiders. 

Before anyone could respond, Claptrap rolled forward and smashed into Maya’s legs with an excited shout. “Minion! I knew you would never leave your fearless leader behind!” The robot wrapped his little arms around her waist, and all she could do was awkwardly pat the top of him.

“Yeah, it’s… good to see you too, Claptrap.”

The raiders looked back over to Hammerlock, the team leader shaking his hand. “Well met. I’m Davies, and with me are Putnam-” she released his hand and gestured to the raider to her right. “-And… what did you say your name was?” 

Maya dropped her arms to her sides as Claptrap let go and rolled away up to the camp. “Oh, um, it’s Maya, ma’am.”

Hammerlock clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back on his heels. “Yes, ms. Maya and I met a few days ago on the shelf. It’s good to see that you - and I hope I’m not being presumptuous in assuming - the others made it to Sanctuary.” 

“Indeed.” Davies said, impatient. “Now, I would suggest we return to camp before something unpleasant crawls up out of the water. We did not come here for a social visit.”

“Of course not, my apologies. Let us be on our way.” He gestured towards the cliffs with one hand, then followed Davies. “I do, however, believe I may have some information that the Crimson Raiders may be interested in having.”

The raiders Putnam took the lead, with Davies and Hammerlock walking side by side as they spoke, Maya bringing up the rear with her SMG in hand. During the slow climb back up, Hammerlock gave Davies a brief rundown of some things he learned about the Ripper bandits on the shelf, and how it correlated to the activity of the mainland bandit gangs, along with an account of the train crash and the aftermath. As they approached the skull gate, now fortified and defended by two raiders and three recruits, Hammerlock finished his report by offering Davies a small handful of echo cartridges. 

“I believe your commander will appreciate having these recordings. One of the vault hunters from the crash, a young lady by the name of Gaige, found them hidden in Liar’s Berg.”

“What is their significance?” Davies asked.

“They detail the final days of one Helena Pierce.”

Davies accepted the cartridges and deposited them into a small pouch she pulled from her jacket. “Thank you, sir, I will send this in to be examined immediately. Commander Roland will appreciate you handing these over. You said the vault hunters from the train were to join the Raiders, yes? I would like to have a word with the young lady who discovered them, as well, if you could point her out.”

“Certainly.” Hammerlock nodded. 

Turning to Maya, Davies gave instructions to her to take the cartridges over to someone inside the camp, handed her the pouch, then walked with Hammerlock into the camp. The raider Putnam meandered off to one of the runners. 

The camp consisted of a line of tents stretching from the fire pit towards the cliff. Most of the Raiders’ technical equipment - computers, a small radio tower, and other miscellaneous tech - were assembled in and around the makeshift huts the bandits had built. The fire pit had a spit erected over it, and several folding tables and chairs set up around it, the space having been reserved as a small dining area. 

Maya eventually found the person she was looking for inside one of the huts, a tired-looking middle aged man in furs hunched over a radio receiver. She knocked twice on the doorframe, then waited for him to look up from whatever he was doing. Taking the pouch, Maya explained what they were, and the raider thanked and dismissed her.

Standing in the trampled snow, Maya looked around at the camp and the raiders busying themselves. Now what was she supposed to do? Glancing up at the sky, she watched a few puffy white clouds roll by, her thoughts drifting back to Izumi. 

A voice somewhere to her left distracted her before she could start dwelling on it again.

“Hey, Maya! Maya! Come get some food!” Gaige shouted from near the fire. She was sitting at a table with Axton, Zer0, and one of the Raiders. 

Taking a seat between Zer0 and the raider, Maya was promptly greeted by a plate of scrambled eggs being slid in front of her. 

Axton, who had stopped what he was saying to watch as Maya sat, turned back to the raider. “So, anyways, I’m on top of this cruiser, right? And the dude drivin’ the thing is, like, tryna to shoot me down, but he’s too busy trying to not crash the damn thing, but ‘cause he was too distracted by me kickin' him in the head, he didn’t notice that he’d started to head straight for the reactor.”

Apparently he was telling another one of his Dahl stories. Maya picked a fork up out of the eggs and listened as he kept talking.

“So what did you do?” The raider asked, his chin resting in the palm of a hand and gaze fixated on Axton.

The soldier boy smirked. “Well, I didn’t want him to see where we were headed while he still had the chance to move, so I take my leg and start kicking the broken parts of the cruiser off. Now _ that _ really pissed him off, so now he’s trying to grab my ankle and yank me off, but while he was doing that, I reached around and managed to flip a few switches on the controls. This meathead finally stops and sees where he’s going and tries to steer it away, but the controls were stuck and he couldn’t do jack shit. So I grabbed the harness on his uniform and wrapped it around an exposed bit of pipe on the cruiser, then jumped off. I landed in the water, but I could still see him trying to get out of the cruiser. A few seconds later, he crashes right into the reactor and the entire place went up.” Axton made a _ whoosh _ noise and fanned his hands out to mimic an explosion.

“I managed to avoid chunks of the place collapsing and swim back to shore, but that hit that guy landed was _ way _worse than it seemed at first, and when it finally healed a few months later, I had this-” He rolled his right sleeve up to show a long, thick pink gash on on his bicep. 

The raider reached out and gingerly touched it with the tips of his fingers, an impressed look on his face. “Damn, dude, that’s pretty sick.” 

Catching her eye, Gaige looked pointedly at Axton, then back to Maya and rolled her eyes. Maya took another bite of eggs and felt herself agreeing.

“Anyways, ain’t you got somewhere to be?” Gaige asked Axton.

He pulled his sleeve back down. “Uhhh no?”

“Too bad.”

“Oh, you’re just mad that I won.”

“I am _ not!” _

“Yeah? I’d like to see _ you _ come up with a better name than “Thot Hunters.” I _ dare _you!”

“Fuck off!” Gaige huffed. 

The raider chuckled a little at the exchange, then looked at his echo and stood. “Right, well, I gotta get back to my post. See you some other time?” The question was directed at Axton, who responded by winking and clicking his tongue.

Maya scraped the last of the eggs up. “So-” She started, “I think Davies was looking for you.”

Gaige scrunched her face up. “Who?”

“Davies? The Raider leading our team?”

“Oh. What did she want, do you know?”

“Hammerlock apparently gave her some echo logs you found. I think she wants to thank you for finding them, but I’m not really sure.”

Gaige’s face brightened a bit. “Wait, Hammerlock? He’s here? Where?” 

“Yeah. I’d try over there-” Maya turned around and pointed towards the largest of the tents. “-to start.”

“Aw, man.” Axton groaned and leaned his chair back, popping his feet up on the table. “I was hoping we’d at least get to see some action out here, but guess not.”

“Bored already?” Maya asked.

Gaige threw him a side-eye. “You know we’re not actually part of the Raiders yet, right? There’s a lot more to this shit than just going out and killin’ ‘bots and Hyperion goons.”

Axton picked at something in his teeth. “Kid, I’ve been doin’ this shit a helluva lot longer than you have. The Crimson Raiders might not be the largest force, or the most organized, but they’re doin’ the same shit everyone else in the galaxy is doin’: fightin’ corporations for control. Only difference between the Raiders and Dahl is that Dahl didn’t put theirs together overnight.”

“There’s more different than just _ that! _ You can’t compare the Dahl military to the Raiders!”

“No, maybe not.” Axton sighed and flicked a bit of food off the tip of a finger. “But sit in the middle of it all for a few years, and it all starts to look the same.”

The same, huh? Maya was no expert on the political state of the galaxy, but she’d read about the corporate wars, and the absolute chaos that ensued during it, the chaos that was still occurring even though it had officially ended years before she was born. From what she understood, the remaining corporations had an uneasy peace between them, although some were known to have occasional scuffles with each other. She remembered reading somewhere that Dahl in particular occupied a portion of the galaxy with the most civil unrest, that they had spent the last 30 years or so building up their military in order to keep their foothold. 

It would make sense, she thought, for Axton to become desensitized to it all. Chances were he’d seen the same thing play out a few times, and he was probably used to being the one on the other side. She wondered why he would so readily side with the Hyperion resistance. What were his motives, really? There was no way that _ glory _was all he wanted; he had to know that the odds weren’t exactly stacked in their favor, so what did expect to gain from it all?

Gaige and Axton’s conversing was cut off by the sound of their echos all crackling as they automatically started picking up a broadcast. The pained, wheezing voice of an injured man rang out. 

“…amned Bloodshots, there's too many of 'em! If anyone can hear me, I need HELP!”


	17. Blood In The Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The other guy has one helluva day

“Goddamned Bloodshots, there's too many of 'em! If anyone can hear me, I need HELP!”

The man’s voice cut through Krieg’s brain like a knife, catching him off-guard. He recognized the voice as one of the raiders who greeted them at the gates of Sanctuary. From the way he sounded, he was in over his head. Too weak to fend off whatever he hunted. Pathetic!

Situated in the turret seat of a runner, Krieg leaned over the gun, his bandaged arm draped along the barrel, and scanned his surroundings. The seat was a snug fit, but it made an excellent vantage point. Two of the runners were parked on a cliff overlooking a valley between the mountains, while the rest had fanned out. Below him, the others were milling around, weapons in hand and keeping an eye out for danger.

They had been out scouting in the mountains for hours when they picked up the broadcast, and the raiders all looked to the pack leader for what to do. The tall Amazon recruit with graying hair said something about going after the bastard, to which the raider in charge said something he didn’t catch. 

Krieg didn’t think it was worth it. Why rush to save the man from his own stupidity? It wasn’t his problem. 

His echo crackled a second time as the broadcast continued, the man saying something about a power core and trying to lose the bandits up his ass in a specific location. Once the broadcast ended, the raiders looked at the leader again, then to each other. The leader ordered them to load up, and within the minute the runners were squealing back up to the road.

If he was lucky, finding that raider would lead them to the bandits. He had been in the turret for far longer than he liked, and even though he had free range to shoot down any animal and bandit he saw with the massive gun, it just wasn’t as _ satisfying. _In the few days since they arrived in Sanctuary, he had gotten more restless than usual, just aching to get his hands on someone. His blood threatened to boil over like a kettle if he didn't find a way to release all of the pent up energy. 

In the back of his mind, one of the songs the kid had played during the night rattled and repeated itself, stuck in an endless loop. He absently drummed his fingers along the turret barrel to the tune. 

Following the source of the signal, the runners came upon the remains of a jury rigged truck covered in spikes, now broken down and smoking in the sun from innumerable bullet holes in the right side and hood. Several bodies littered the ground in and around the truck, all of them bearing the same distinct red markings across whatever skin was exposed: a giant red eye, the top lid flanked by spikes, and blood dripping from the center. 

Following the short trail the bodies left along the road, a second broadcast from the man was picked up, stating he was going to try and lose his assailants someplace Krieg didn’t recognize. The raiders must have known the place he spoke of, because they immediately climbed back into the runners and sped off down the valley. 

Turning a sharp corner around the base of a tall, rocky outcropping, the raiders entered a vast stretch of tundra they called the Marrowfields, a place occupied only by jagged rocks and the gigantic bones of some long-dead and forgotten creatures. It didn’t take an observant eye to notice the signs of a chase: snow trampled and dirtied by exhaust, broken scraps of smoking metal, splatters of blood, several bandit corpses, and an overturned and smoking motorbike. The runners drove under and around the bones, following the trail of death and destruction until they came upon a lone Crimson Raider cornered inside a humongous broken skull. The raider had discarded his gun in favor of a knife, hacking and slashing at the small group of bandits surrounding and taunting him. 

Not even waiting for the runners to come to a stop, the raiders leaped out of the vehicles and began shooting at the bandits, turning their attention away from the cornered man. Krieg jumped out of the turret along with them, but he knew better than to jump in and start hacking, as much as he wanted to; his scavenged shield could only take so much damage before it eventually crapped out and stopped working, and heavy gunfire was never a fun experience to recover from. 

Only one of the bandits failed to respond to the Raiders’ arrival, some masked nutjob cackling as she waved a buzz-axe at the man like a cat playing with its food. A shot from the Amazon stopped that in its tracks, but not before she sunk the axe into the man’s shoulder. 

The bandits were gunned down, and the raiders rushed to the man’s side, trying desperately to staunch the bleeding and get a hypo in him.

It was too late for him, Krieg could tell. He was losing blood too quickly, and there was no safe amount of hypo that could heal his wound up fast enough for him to even have a shot at making it. Not that it mattered, anyways, it was none of Krieg’s concern whether or not he lived or died. The man had been weak, had ultimately paid the price of hunting what he couldn’t take down, had turned himself into the prey. 

For once, the Little Man had nothing to say about the situation. Krieg tilted his head as he listened to the man wheeze out his last words. 

“Get that… get that core back… get it to Sanctuary. I'm just gonna… take a nap… Wake… wake me up when… I'm not on… Pandora… anymore.” The man exhalled and went still, and the raiders all looked at each other. Pressing his forehead against the helmet of the now dead fool, the raider leading the team sighed and pulled his echo out to contact someone, mumbling a series of “aye” and “yes, sir” into it before disconnecting. 

Something about the man’s last words struck a chord in Krieg’s chest, but he had no idea why, or even what feeling it was supposed to be. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it, and pushed it back down as he turned away from the body. 

_ …Rest in peace. _

Krieg rolled his eyes and grimaced. 

One of the raiders pulled a set of shovels from the undersides of the runner, handed the other to the Amazon, then found a spot free of snow under the skull to start digging. Another two set to work moving the bandit bodies and wrapping the raider’s corpse in an emergency blanket, while the last stood watch at the base of the skull. 

While the raiders prepared a burial, Krieg picked his way over to the corpse of the person who killed the man. One of the raiders had pulled her axe from the man’s shoulder and tossed it back over to where she fell. Picking it up, Krieg looked over the axe for any parts he could pull off of it. 

For a weapon pieced together from scrap by half-mad ingrates, it was surprisingly well-made. He had seen quite a few of them during his time out in the wastes, and while they all seemed to follow the same basic design, some were simply better put together than others. Whoever made the one he held had clearly taken a great deal of care to get it right. He opened his echo up and placed it in storage so he could further inspect and disassemble it later. 

_ Strange how pretty much all of the buzz-axes we’ve seen have looked more or less the same. Makes me wonder why ours was made the way it is. _

It didn’t matter. 

Looking around, Krieg itched to kill something. Pulling his own axe from his storage, he paced restlessly near the cars, joining the raider in watching for any sign of attack. Someone whispered just behind him, a voice muttering unintelligible garbage into his ear. 

After a mind-numbing half hour of endless _ waiting, _ the raider fools _ finally _finished their shitty little funeral. He only half listened as they discussed something about a power core. It was only when they mentioned that said power core was in the hands of bandits - fair game as far as the Little Man was concerned - that Krieg’s interest was piqued. Finally, something worthwhile!

The raider in charge ordered them back into the runners, and the driver of the leading car led them through the bonestrewn tundra towards a particularly large rock outcrop circled by a massive sun-bleached spine rising from the snow.

Before they could get anywhere close to the outcrop, the raiders slowed the runners and tried to hide them the best they could along the side of a boulder. A raider was sent to scout the outcrop for signs of the bandits, quietly describing what he saw over his echo. 

According to him, the bandits, which the raiders were apparently calling Bloodshots, had set up a little shanty town under an overhang. His rough estimate on their numbers was around 20 or so, maybe more. 

Krieg smirked. As long as the fuckers didn’t have shields, or at least quality shields, they would be easy pickings. He didn’t like the thought of being joined by others, though, as they would just suck the fun out of it. The vault hunters had been content enough to leave him to his unfettered _ mirth _on the glacier, but the raiders weren’t likely to be quite as unrestrictive. 

When the scout returned, the raiders gathered around one another and formulated a plan of attack, plotting to scale the rocks around the overhang and take the bandits by surprise. They were in agreement and about ready to move out when the Amazon looked up to stare at Krieg and ask “What about him?” in her nearly indecipherable accent. 

The expression of the raider in charge soured a bit when he looked up and remembered Krieg’s existence, but he soon raised an eyebrow in contemplation, then got a suspicious gleam in his eyes. 

Again with that look! Krieg glared at the man as he continued to eye him.

“You’re Krieg, right?” He finally asked.

So he knew his name. Great! That was just _ great. _Because he wanted every random useless bag of bones and blood and pus to know who he was. 

Krieg tilted his head up and grunted in confirmation. 

“The plan is to get above those Bloodshots and pick them off while they’re confused and unorganized, but I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say that someone like _ you _probably doesn’t have any kind of gun on ya’. Ain’t that right?”

How presumptuous of him. “My axe prevails.” Krieg growled at the man, tightening his grip on the handle. He still had the rifle from the mustache man, but he didn’t really _ need _ a gun. Besides, if he was going to use any kind of firearm for close to mid-range combat, he would prefer something actually _ suited _for the job. 

“That’s what I figured.” He told Krieg. “Those Bloodshots won’t stay confused and unorganized for very long, and if only five of us are pickin’ ‘em off, that’s precious time we can’t waste. But, if some great big psycho killer were to, I don’t know, _ distract _them, and take a few out in the meantime, that would give the rest of us plenty of opportunity to waste their asses.” The raider crossed his arms and gave him a look someone might give to a mischievous child.

He had a lotta nerve, Krieg had to give him that.

The raider held out his hands in question. “So whaddya say, bigfoot, feel like getting your hands a little bloody?”

Krieg eyed the raider for a moment, taking a moment to glance down at his outstretched hand waiting for a confirmation. He was _ always _willing to get his hands bloody. 

_ And the rest of us… _

Krieg gripped the raider’s hand with his bandaged arm. “More blood for my brutality.” He said with a snarl. 

“That’s what I like to hear! Let’s get to it, then.” The raider grinned and jerked his head towards the bandits, then turned to the other raiders and signalled them to start moving into position. 

Making his way towards the camp, Krieg passed underneath several pairs of ribs aligned to make a series of archways. The same patterns the Bloodshots had tattooed onto them were carved into the bones, the grooves filled with what looked like some sort of mix of red dye and dirt.

_ And blood, it looks like. _

Their dedication to the aesthetic was commendable; he’d seen quite a few bandit groups who were too _ lazy _ to even bother having a little fun with styles, let alone _ stick _with them. 

As the bandit camp came into view, Krieg swung his axe up and slipped it through the leather across his back, slowing his stride to a leisurely, relaxed stroll. He didn’t want to scare the prey off before he got close. 

Slowly, the bandits took notice of him one by one, stopping where they stood to turn their heads and watch carefully his approach. When he neared a fire surrounded by overturned buckets and scrap seats, a large bandit in a heavy coat made of furs stitched together emerged from one of the numerous little huts. A few of the bandit prey meandered down from walkways set into the stone of the overhang, forming a very loose semi-circle around him and the person. Krieg itched to light them all up in a beautiful blaze of glory. All in good time, though, all in good time.

“Well… Who’s this?” The large bandit said, voice gruff and cocky. “One a them boys from Southpaw, you reckon? They got all kinds a them noisy-ass masked bastards over there. Well? Whaddya got to say, big boy?”

A sharp bolt of pain shot from the base of his neck down the nerves in his back, spreading out into his shoulder blades, as he stood up straight and glared down at the carcass-to-be. “The meat puppies… they come to the slaughter, like children to the playground.” He said, laying in thick the guttural tones that the Little Man had been kind enough to practice during his worthless life. Krieg didn’t need to even _ bother _trying to lie to the fools, they were just like all the rest in their baseless assumptions, and they would die like all the others before them. 

To neither his nor the Little Man’s surprise, the bandits thought nothing of it. The large bandit rolled his eyes like he’d heard the same thing a thousand times over. “I’ll take that as a “yes”, then. ‘Bout time you showed up, been waitin’ for that Reeth or whatever his name is to answer for days now. Figures he’d send ‘nother one a his axe-totin’ lunatics over.” He turned his head to glance at a bandit in armor made of painted bones tied with wire somewhere to Krieg’s left. “Think this one even knows how to tie his own shoes? Last one didn’t. Dumb motherfuckers.”

_ Asshole. _

Krieg narrowed his eyes and scowled as he quickly stepped up to the bandit, reaching forward to clutch his _ disgusting _neck with his braced hand while the bastard was focused on the one in bones. He let out a shout of surprise cut short and swore relentlessly as he scrabbled against Krieg’s arm.

“Blessed Mother, what do we say to naughty boys?” He hissed at him. “He’s just BEGGING to confess!”

In his ear, Krieg heard someone whisper to him. For a split second he thought it was one of the annoying voices, but it was just a raider telling him they were all in position.

The other bandits hooted and jeered, taunting the bastard in Krieg’s grasp and urging them both to duke it out. Krieg wanted them all dead, he didn’t _ want _to duke it out, and neither did the bandit. When Krieg increased the pressure on his windpipe, the bandit dropped an arm to grope for the gun holstered on his back, pulling forth a plain, double-barreled shotgun. 

Krieg grabbed the barrel and yanked to the side, causing one of the bandit’s fingers to catch on the handle and _ snap _with such delicious sharpness and a wheezing scream, pulling the worthless chunk of wood and metal away and bringing it down over his head. The prey tried to fight back, they always did, but it only took a few heavy hits for his lovely song to end, for his legs to give out under him and bring his bloody halo to sizzle in the trampled snow.

“Tch, should’ve known better.” The bandit in bones spat on the corpse, turning to walk away. The others lost interest as well, and Krieg heard them grumbling about unpaid debts as he dropped to search the prey’s corpse, which yielded a few handfuls of shells.

The bandits that had surrounded him wandered back to the fire. Taking stock of where the rest were, Krieg made sure the shotgun was loaded and stashed it in his echo’s storage for the time being. He decided to start by picking his way up the precarious infrastructure built under the overhang. 

By his count, there were 12 on the ground, plus the dead one, and four hanging out on the walkways. There were about three little huts built on the walkways, one of which he could see was empty. When he swung open the door of the second, he found two sleeping bandits. Krieg closed the door behind him and looked around, quickly silencing them with a handmade knife that had been sitting on the ground next to one, cutting their throats and leaving them to bleed. 

It was beautiful, really, the way their blood painted the floor, the walls, each other, pooling in a corner of the uneven floor and mixing together into one great lake of scarlet. Sharing their life even in death. Krieg pulled his echo from his belt as he watched. “Two down.” He growled low, alerting the raiders that he’d begun his hunt.

He pulled the door open and made his way to the third hut. Inside, he found three more invested in a game of cards and drinking. Only one glanced up at him, but was unfazed and looked back down. Krieg made short work of them, sticking two in the neck in rapid succession, leaving the blade in the second so as to quickly reach across the table and grab the third, snapping her neck. 

“Three more.”

Once he went after the ones outside, the others would go hostile, so he pulled the knife out of the bandit’s neck and wiped the blade off on his pants, letting it join the shotgun in storage as he pulled forth his axe. 

The four on the walkway were easy; they were sitting in a circle and drinking, not paying any attention to Krieg as he approached and buried his axe into the head of one, and then a second. The other two jumped and fell back off their makeshift seats in shock, trying to ready their own weapons as Krieg pulled the axe free and slashed the third open, then the fourth. The count was up to a total of ten out of the 22 he clocked. 

By then, the rest of the bandits on the ground had heard the shouting and were looking around for the source. Before any of them could comprehend what happened, a series of shots went off, and five of them went down. 15 down. The last seven scattered like mice, only to be gunned down as they panicked and tried to find cover.

Krieg’s echo crackled as the raiders confirmed the last of the identified targets were dead. “Alright, Krieg man, we’re comin’ down to search for that power core. Make sure we didn’t miss any of them fuckers.” The raider in charge told him.

He scowled and glared towards the rocks; so he really _ was _ to be ordered around, it seemed. The Little Man was never fond of being _ ordered _to do anything, and Krieg sure as hell wasn’t, either, but it wasn’t worth throwing a fit over. He’d suck it up just as he always had, complying with a huff and a roll of his eyes. 

The bandits up in the walkways were still dead. The ones in the huts were still dead. Descending the shitty scrap ramps, he found two more makeshift huts tucked in the back of the overhang. Movement through the window of one caught his attention, so he shoved the axe into his harness and pulled the shotgun from his storage. 

He kicked the door open to find a bandit kneeling on the ground and pointing a dinky little revolver at him. The bandit fired right as Krieg was bringing the shotgun up, causing his shield to buzz as it intercepted the bullet that would have otherwise gone through his shoulder. The shield held up, but the force of the shot would leave a bruise. Before the bandit could get another shot in, Krieg promptly dispersed his brains across the back wall with buckshot. What a splendid splattering of blood and flesh splashing along the metal!

The last hut was empty. Another sweep of the ground confirmed they had all been dealt with. Krieg silently lamented that he didn’t get to let loose like he wanted, but he’d take what he could get. A voice somewhere just behind him and to the side asked something he couldn’t quite understand. 

Once the raiders found the missing power core, along with three more stuffed under some blankets in a corner, they searched the place for anything that could be of use. Krieg took the opportunity to grab the shotgun holster off of the first bandit’s body, then he followed them to the cars, where they loaded up and made their way back through the fields. The one in charge contacted someone as they turned onto the road, letting them know they had secured the power cores.

The drive back to that town - _ Sanctuary _ \- was mind-numbing. He had nothing to _ do! _Nothing to occupy himself with as he sat in the turret, nothing to do but watch for hostiles, the fire in his blood struggling to keep burning in the constant icy wind. There was a moment where he considered how it might have been beneficial for him to bring some kind of jacket, but it was too goddamned late. By the time they reached the divide, his skin was red and raw, and his hands were beginning to go numb. At least his feet were spared, the fur he stripped off the ‘mongs on the glacier providing enough insulation to keep his toes from freezing solid.

_ Maybe next time we have to drive through the mountains, we could at least _ bring _ something. This _ sucks_. _

It did. His skin was still tender from his sunburn, and now he had to deal with the freezing cold! He was eternally grateful when the runners pulled up to the Sanctuary gates and stopped, allowing him and the raiders to jump out and seek shelter from the frigid wind. The raider in charge bade them gather around him, praising them for what he considered “a job well-done”. Krieg was taken aback when the raider turned to him to give a short nod, commending how he made short work of the bandits. There was something _ weird _ in his eyes, a look containing what _ seemed _like appreciation, for some ungodly reason, mixed with something else unfamiliar and strange.

_ It’s respect. _

Respect? Why would anyone respect him? There was no reason. Besides, what made them think he even _ wanted _their respect? Why should he care how they felt about him?

_ Keep doing right by them, and they’ll do right by us. If we can work with them and gain their trust, then we can trust them to have our back. _

Trust, huh? That was a dangerous thing. He trusted no one, why should he trust the weak-minded voice in his head? But the raiders had had plenty of opportunities to gun him down, yet they hadn’t. They could’ve waited until the bandits were crowded around him and distracted and taken them all out at once, could’ve waited until the bandits were dead and focused all their fire on him, could’ve blown the remains of his half-broken shield away and painted the ground with his brains, shot him until the only thing left was just blood in the snow. 

But they didn’t. 

Staring right back at the raider, Krieg returned the nod. When he and the others were dismissed, he began the slow walk towards the town, snow crunching loudly with each step. 

He ran his bandaged fingers along the rail of the bridge as he walked. The floor of the chasm beneath was obscured by a thick layer of fog. He wondered how far down it was to the bottom, what he would be met with if he were to simply vault over the rail and jump. Would the bottom be a field of sharp rocks ready to impale him? Would it be a flat floor for him to become a flat, bloody stain on? Maybe there was a river or stream at the bottom, frozen solid and covered in snow. Maybe there would be enough to break his fall. Maybe he would sprout a pair of flaming wings before he reached the end. He was half tempted to fuck around and find out what the answer was, if only to stop the weird achy feeling in his chest. 

A boisterous shout behind him snapped him out of his thoughts. Krieg stopped and turned to face the sound of heavy footsteps rapidly approaching, only to be met by the sight of Salvador jogging after him. When the short man caught up, huffing with his hands on his knees, he looked up with a grin splitting his face in two, the corners of his eyes crinkling. 

“Hey, I’m glad I caught you, hermano.” He told Krieg. “You ain’t answered anyone’s texts in a while, I was startin’ to get worried about ya.”

Krieg turned to fully face the man. “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.” He said in a mocking tone. 

Salvador nodded. “Yeah, figured you were busy, but… you never know, right?” He smiled, but his eyes betrayed some of the concern he was trying to cover up. Concern? For _ him? _Why? “C’mon, I got some things I need to do before heading back to the house.” He reached up to smack Krieg’s shoulder, but stopped halfway. The concern in his eyes was replaced with a flash of recognition, followed immediately by regret, and finally settling on the friendly look he usually had. He put his hand down and started walking. 

As he followed behind him, Krieg furrowed his brows in confusion at the man’s sudden, uncharacteristic amount of spatial awareness. Part of him was glad that he seemed to be learning some basic fucking boundaries, but he also wondered what it was that prompted the look in his eyes. He knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. The less people touched him, the better off he’d be. 

They were greeted by a pair of raiders as they passed through the city gates. Above them, the shield covering Sanctuary flickered and disappeared, only to reappear moments later. The short man glanced over to Krieg and spoke as he led them through the streets.

“Right, so, I called mi Abuela during the night to tell her how I have been doing since I left Ovejas and check up on her, and I asked her if she could get my cousin to put some of my things into my QCS so I can have them down here and don’t have to freeze to death. She called me up on the drive back to Sanctuary earlier and told me that the lazy bastard finally got around to it.” He stifled a yawn with a hand and led them through the plaza in the center of the city, about as bustling as it could be with residents going about their lives and patrolling raiders. 

“I get you probably aren’t the biggest fan of shirts,” he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and continued. “I know I ain’t, either, but I asked if they could throw in a thing or two I think might fit you, if you want.”

_ That would be nice, and we appreciate the offer, but I’d hate to accidentally burn them up or get them ruined. _

“We”? There was no “we” about it! The Little _ Man _ might appreciate it, but Krieg sure as hell didn’t. Besides, they didn’t even _ know _what it was he was talking about. He grunted in response. 

At the other end of the plaza, Salvador led him to a small covered area surrounded by dead or barren garden plots. Under the cover, a QCS machine stood against a wall to the far left, and tables and benches stretched to the other side. There was a small alcove on that end that Krieg had seen from the outside, but he was at an angle where he couldn’t quite see what, if anything, was in the alcove. 

Stumpy stopped in front of the QCS, and Krieg sat on one of the benches while he watched the man access his account. 

“An old friend of mine that lives here showed me around. It was pretty dark out, but I’ve always been good with directions.”

That must have been sometime in the middle of the night. Stumpy and the pretty boy went out for drinks with someone and invited him along, but he didn’t want to go.

The short man threw a glance over his shoulder at him. “You should come out with us later, for a drink if not the company.”

Krieg rolled his eyes. “I’m never alone.” To be alone, really alone, for one moment would be a damn blessing.

“You want to be left alone, eh? These city slickers too noisy for ya?” He clearly meant it in a joking manner, but it was closer to the mark than he thought. A corner of Krieg’s mouth ticked up in a vaguely amused grin. “I think I know a place here in town that might work. I can show you when we’re done here, if you’d like.” He turned around to face Krieg, several items in his hands.

Joining him on the bench, Salvador set a pair of boots on the ground and began to pull on a jacket. “Here, I think these oughta fit you.” Using his foot, he slid the boots across the concrete until they hit Krieg’s own foot. Krieg leaned down and set them in front of him, picking one up to take a better look.

Dark brown, scuffed, and flecked with stains and dirt, they looked like a pair of work boots, well-worn and broke in, but in good condition. Sturdy. He turned them over for holes or tears and found none. 

“They’re steel-toed, and unlike those solid stompers you got on, they’ve actually got good traction.” He said. “Not to mention insulation.”

They were in good condition, he had to give him that, but he wondered what it was stumpy would inevitably demand in return. 

“They were my dad’s, but he doesn't really need ‘em anymore, y’know?” Salvador switched from English to Spanish, talking more to the floor than to Krieg. Why would he do that? It was possible he simply didn’t think Krieg would understand, or at least not completely. Was he testing him? Krieg had responded to his panicked stream of nonsense when they arrived in Sanctuary, so perhaps he just wanted to verify that Krieg actually _ had _ understood him. It would be simpler to just _ ask, _ but _ no, _that would be too easy.

_ Maybe he just misses being able to talk to someone in something other than English. _

That was also possible. Krieg’s own Spanish wasn’t nearly as good as it could’ve been, but it was familiar enough. Not to mention he understood the feeling.

He dropped the boot back down to the ground. “Stealing severed feet?” He asked, looking over at the short man.

Salvador let out a short bark of laughter. “Ha! Nice to know at least someone else here understands. No, he passed a long time ago. My grandmother kept his things when it happened, gave them to others in the family, and I got his boots, among some other things. They don’t quite fit me right, not wide enough, but I figured I could at least see if you could use them, if not me. He was a firm believer in using things as far as they could go, didn’t like throwing shit out if they still had life in them.”

That was good enough for him. Krieg loosened the laces on the right boot and slid his own off, and was surprised to find that they fit rather comfortably. He still didn’t have any socks, but he didn’t think he’d need to stuff the boots with fur like he did with the steel ones.

_ We should thank him for letting us use them. _

“They fit alright?” 

Krieg laced it up and stood, putting his weight on the leg, then gave him a thumbs up.

“Nice! C’mon, get the other one on, and we’ll get going.”

After depositing his metal boots into his storage, Krieg followed the short man down a few more streets, passing by homes and a few small shops. At one point, they walked by a boarded up motel, the tinted windows shuttered and black, but something wasn’t right, something about it gave Krieg a nauseous sinking feeling in the pit of his gut. The main door was bolted and locked. Was it to keep something in, or keep people out? He didn’t want to know, and couldn’t get away from it fast enough. 

A few more turns, and the short man brought them before a neon sign above what Krieg could only assume was an alley entrance to a bar; a pair of legs flashed above the word "Moxxxi’s”. 

Moxxxi’s? Krieg could swear he had heard of a bar called that before, back when the Little Man was in control, a flashy club called the Up Over bar run by some homemade robot, the only bar in Concordia to get a stiff drink, not to mention the perfect place to find information, to go looking for anyone who might know something, some kind of clue to point him in the right direction, any kind of lead that would help him track that two-timing fucker down and- 

As they approached a door under the sign, a man spoke somewhere behind him and to the left, hissing right in his ear.

** _You're never getting her back._ **

God _ damn it! _The flesh on the back of his neck prickled and a jolt went down his spine as Krieg instinctively whipped around to try and find the source, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the empty street behind him. Nothing, just another one of the Little Man’s ghosts. He turned to catch up with Stumpy before he noticed Krieg had fallen behind. 

The metal door was opened by a man with his back to the wall, reaching behind him to turn the handle and push it open. He stepped backwards down the steps while some woman distracted him. Stumbling down the steps to the pavement, the pair were oblivious to them as they bumped into the wall. Salvador caught the door before it shut all the way and tipped his head towards the inside.

A wave of warm air heavy with the scent of perfume and incense drifted out to greet Krieg as he set a foot on the first step, accompanied by the sound of heavy bass music blaring from somewhere far above him. Inside was a dimly lit, yet decently sized lounge area; several slot machines lined a wall to his left, and a few couches and chairs were assembled around a low table to his right, occupied by a group of people drinking and playing darts. Stumpy stepped in behind him and shut the door, the entire place darkening quite a bit as the light streaming in from outside was cut off. 

“C’mon, there should be some booths in the next room.” He said. “A friend of mine should be waiting. I think you’ll like him, though, he’s a real chill dude, won’t try to fuck with you like Axton does.”

Krieg didn’t give a damn what kind of person Salvador’s friend was so long as they left him alone. But he had proven himself to be someone Krieg could rely on to a certain degree, so maybe it would be worth placing a little bit of trust in his word. Maybe. 

A doorway on the far wall led into what looked like the main area of the establishment; a long bar occupied the wall to the left, and several steps led down to a long dining area, and eventually the main doors, to the right. Large swaths of deep red fabric hung from the high ceiling, and the long red rugs on the wood floor were well-worn. The planks in the floor creaked as they approached the bar, with the shorter man hauling himself up onto a stool to beckon the attention of the bartender. 

Taking a seat in the stool next to him, Krieg watched as a well-done up woman in a revealing dress leaned onto the counter in front of them. “Hey there, sugar, what can I get for you today?” She spoke in an airy, overly flirtatious manner, probably some kind of work persona or act, if he had to guess.

“Lookin’ for a buddy, señora, name of Blanco.” Salvador told the bartender, switching back to English, mostly.

The bartender raised her eyebrows, then gave him a knowing smirk. “Ah, you’re his friend from up north, are you? Mmm, he’s told me _ all _ about his time up there. He’s over in the booths, hon, and you be sure you let him know I’ll be right over with something _ stiff, _ all right?” She said the last part with a wink and another knowing smirk.

At the other end of the bar, a wall separated the dining portion from another long area lined with booths and tables. They found Stumpy's friend in one of them about halfway down, leaning back with his head resting against the seat’s leather, eyes shut. He was dressed in a simple gray-green shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his graying hair falling over his forehead where it wasn’t slicked back, and a bit of five o’clock shadow dusting his cheeks.

Salvador banged a fist on the table when they got close and startled him, causing the man to jolt forward and frantically look around. 

“Agh, _ Jesus, _Chava, we ain’t seen each other but once in seven years, and you’re already back t’tryin’ to give me a fuckin’ heart attack.” The man spoke with a distinct calm drawl that really did not match the squinty, suspicious expression he wore. 

The short man laughed. “And what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t keep you on your toes, eh?” Turning to Krieg, he gestured for him to sit, then slid into the booth. Krieg sat down next to him a moment later. 

“This is the guy I was talkin’ about earlier.” Once again, Salvador switched to Spanish to talk to the gray man. 

The gray man looked from Salvador to him. “Krieg, was it? Yeah, Chava’s told me a little bit about you. It’s nice to meet ya.” His response was English, and he held a hand out across the table towards Krieg.

Krieg glanced at Stumpy out of the corner of his eye. So he’d been talking about him, huh? He didn’t like that one bit, but hopefully there wasn’t much _ to _ tell. Based on his understanding of the man, there was a very low chance that it would be something inherently bad, but things didn’t always need to be bad in order for them to be _ dangerous. _

And just who was the gray man to Salvador? The gray man was apparently familiar enough to just casually call him Chava, and they’d clearly known each other for years. With the way he held himself and spoke, there was a good to fair chance that he was a born and raised Pandoran as well. Perhap they came from the same town. 

_ What did Salvador say his name was? Blanco? _

Reaching across the table, Krieg cautiously took the gray man’s hand and shook, then rested his elbows on the tabletop and leaned on them. He listened as the two shot the shit and caught one another up on their lives over the years since they’d last met. The Little Man was intent on hearing what they said, and Krieg had to admit that he was a little curious. Both of them carried on the conversation in Spanish, but the gray man’s was either generally poor or rusty; either way, he was definitely not a native speaker of it, and he spoke with the local dialect Krieg had become familiar with over the months, different from Salvador’s, and certainly different from the one he spoke. 

From what he could gather, it sounded like the short man had gone through some rough times around ten years previously, and that the aftermath of it had been a real bitch to deal with. He talked about how the people in his village, including some of his family, continued to see him for what he had been instead of who he was trying to be, constantly judging him for past mistakes and things he had no actual control of. 

Despite it all, he had a surprisingly good attitude. He happily told the gray man about random little tidbits and anecdotes that more often than not revolved around him protecting someone from bandits and wildlife, only for him to be rewarded with more scorn. Nevertheless, he claimed he had started to win a few over, and seemed certain that he could get the rest to follow suit. 

Krieg vaguely wondered what a man like him could have possibly done to warrant such treatment from his neighbors, but it didn’t matter. 

At some point, the bartender made her way over with a tray, setting down a few shot glasses and filling them with tequila, then set the bottle in the middle of the table. 

“Well, thank you kindly, miss Moxxi.” The gray man said with an appreciative nod of his head.

“Anytime, sugar. You boys let me know if you need anything else.” She said as she turned to walk back to the bar.

Salvador and the gray man both grabbed a shot, and after a few seconds’ consideration, Krieg reached for the third, lifting the mask just enough to down it. The heat dropped to join the fire that was starting to rise back out of his gut, spreading through his blood once again as it recovered from the blistering cold drive. 

The gray man gave Stumpy a very brief run-down of what he’d been up to: how he worked with the Raider boss guy and some of his buddies for a while, and how he’d relocated to Sanctuary when Hyperion rolled around. 

The longer he sat in the booth with them, the more the walls seemed to close in around him. The heavy air became oppressive and thick until Krieg felt he would suffocate on the sickly sweet scent it carried that stuck to the roof of his mouth like paste. Another shot, and the fire was back, but so was the need to move, to get up and do _ something _ besides sitting on his ass doing _ nothing. _He needed to get up and get away. 

As he set the shot glass on the table and brought the mask back down, Krieg stood and turned his back on the booth. In front of him, against the wall to the right of the bar, was another door held ajar with a large rock, a sign over the top indicating it led towards the place’s restrooms. Through the door was a long hallway. About halfway down, there were two more doors on the left with signs above them, and a third at the very end with “Private. Do not enter” in fancy gold lettering along the top. 

Opening one of the doors on the left, it led into a small, plain bathroom with dark red walls and the same wood floor. Closing the door behind him and locking it, the room was surprisingly cold and free of the perfume saturating the rest of the bar. The bass music was muffled and reduced to a barely audible low beat reverberating through one of the walls.

Krieg stepped up to the sink and quickly pulled the mask off, letting it hang around his wrist as he placed his hands on either side of the porcelain and leaned on it, staring down at the drain and struggled to breathe. How the hell did it not bother anyone else? How did that bartender stand hanging out in it day in and day out? Sucking in air like each breath would be his last, he unwrapped the bandages from his right arm up to his forearm, then turned the faucet on and splashed some of the water over his face.

The freezing water was even more of a shock than the cold air of the bathroom. It hurt, but it was a different kind of pain than what he’d become accustomed to. More natural. As his breathing slowly evened out and the antsy nervous energy cooled, he held a hand under the faucet and watched as the water flowed out, flowed down along his fingers into his palm before falling back into the sink and down the drain, some of it running down his wrist, skin tingling and turning red where it made contact as it sapped at the fire in his blood. 

It was only when the water started to run down far enough to touch the bandaging that he turned the water off. He shook the water off and stood straight, risking a glance at the impeccably clean mirror in front of him. To look at the Little Man. _ Was _ it still the Little Man’s face? Krieg wasn’t sure if he could consider it _ his _or not, couldn’t figure out if they still looked the same as before. The eyes would remain his so long as he remained in control, but he would always look like the bastard that had occupied the flesh suit before him, no matter how busted he was. Mother had been right, though, the creepy eye would be a dead giveaway at what he was to anyone who knew what they were looking at. 

He took a moment to wipe some of the dust from the road off his face with the edge of his bandages. When he ran his hand along his burned skin, he swore he could feel the stubbly ends of hair once more trying to grow back. Sure enough, when he leaned in close to the mirror, there was a faint shadow of dark hair along his scalp and jaw. Eugh, what a pain.

Rewrapping the bandage around his arm, he considered his next course of action; staying in the bar was not an ideal choice, but neither was returning to the house. He could always wander the town to acquaint himself with it, but that sounded boring, and would no doubt lead to people trying to interact with him. He could also just… leave. He could walk out of Sanctuary and find something he could hunt, or just go back to wandering as he’d been doing before, but… Krieg didn’t _ want _ to. Yes, it would be _ nice _ to go kill something, that was always something he was down for, but he couldn’t make up his mind on what he _ wanted. _He didn’t know what he wanted. Eventually, he settled on just going back to the booth. At least there was a shot of booze and a distraction waiting for him with the other two. 

Krieg was about to step back through the hallway’s ajar door back into the bar when the loud sound of Salvador greeting someone stopped him. It was a little difficult to hear over the noise, but there was no denying that the burly man was quite happy to see someone aside from his friend. Through the door, he caught a glimpse of that pretty boy Axton sliding into the booth and the siren sliding in after him. 

Oh, _ great, _just what he needed, a little bit of anxiety to add to his drink. She’d been easier to ignore and keep off his mind once they got to Sanctuary, but he hadn’t completely shaken her out. The Little Man was devoted to spiting Krieg, refusing to let go. 

Not entirely prepared to deal with the four of them at once, Krieg instead took a seat on one of the tall stools at the bar. Well, they were tall for everyone else; his feet brushed the floor. He leaned on his elbows and turned his head to the side as he tried to listen to what the group at the booth were saying. 

From what he heard, the pretties had a boring as hell day, running around doing simple tasks for the raiders. The only reason they were back already was because a bunch of supplies had been brought in from an outside source and needed to be escorted to Sanctuary on the double. The kid and the ninja were still back at the camp, as the raiders still had something for them to- 

“Well, hey there, big boy, what can I get for you?” The bartender interrupted his train of thought and concentration, tracing lines on the counter with a finger. Krieg recoiled and made a face at the question, deeply uncomfortable with the way she said “big boy” and winked.

_ Please don’t talk to us like that. _

She must have noticed his discomfort, because a brief look of understanding crossed her eyes - there one second and gone the next - then stood up straight and placed the heels of her hands against the bar. 

He looked over his shoulder towards the booth and considered, then turned back to her. “Whiskey, neat.”

“You got it, sugar.” 

Focusing back on listening to the others, Krieg pulled some cash from his echo and dropped it in the tip jar. 

“…just glad we didn’t have Krieg there.” He heard Axton say. “Ugh, can’t imagine how goddamn embarrassing it would’ve been if he’d been there yelling stupid shit.”

And what the fuck was that supposed to mean?

The gray man said something unintelligible, which was followed up by something from Maya.

“Well, it’s just… he doesn’t always make the most sense. Or, uh, I mean, he’s not really straightforward.” She said.

He made plenty of sense! Krieg snorted in indignation and downed the shot. It wasn’t _ his _fault they didn’t fucking understand. 

More input from the gray man that he couldn’t hear. 

“I mean, I don’t like jumping to conclusions, but…” The siren sounded like she was answering a question she didn’t want to answer. 

“But it does make you wonder if he has anything going on in that head of his.” Axton took the liberty of finishing her sentence. 

The soldier boy was about to say something else, but was cut off by Salvador. “Hey!” He snapped, the mirth from earlier completely gone. “You need to learn to show some fuckin’ respect, alright? Whatever the hell he’s got goin’ on in his head doesn’t _ fucking _ matter, he still deserves to be treated like a person. You can’t measure someone’s intelligence as easily as you’d think, and there’s no fuckin’ reason for you to think any less of him as a person because of it. We all got our differences, and his are just a little more obvious because they aren’t somethin’ we’re used to seeing.” Salvador let out a sigh. “And besides, if you’d actually taken the time to talk to him and really _ look _ , you’d know that those eyes have got more goin’ on behind them than you’d think. I’ve met a lotta dumbasses over the years, and a lotta people who _ did _have a few wires crossed, and he ain’t either of ‘em.” 

“Yeah, but how can you be so sure?”

“Oh, for the love of- talk to him, cabrón. Don’t say anything stupid like you always do, just _ talk _to him and pay attention. Your eyes don’t lie.”

Krieg didn’t hear anything from the table for a few moments. He wasn’t really sure how to feel about what he just heard, and neither did the Little Man. It didn’t matter to him one way or another what they thought of him, and his intelligence was no one’s business but his own, but something about what Salvador said made him feel weird. Like his chest and guts were crawling with maggots. The fire in his blood had flared up when the pretty boy started talking, but now it was back down to a simmer. 

They started to say something else, but he stopped trying to listen and was staring down at his hand on the bar. It sounded like they had calmed down, so he stood and made his way back to the booth. The siren had taken the seat next to Salvador, while Axton was next to the gray man. Krieg slid into the seat next to Maya, not wanting to be next to the pretty boy if he could help it. 

“Hey, glad you’re back.” Stumpy said, leaning around the pretty lady to look at him. 

Krieg grunted and shrugged. 

“So…” Axton started with an awkward cough. “You guys know what happened with that distress call earlier?”

“Distress call? Whaddya mean?” The gray man asked.

Salvador refilled the shot glasses. “A raider put out a call for help on one of the frequencies while we were all out this morning. Said he was gettin’ ambushed by bandits.”

“No idea what happened to him, though.” Maya said as Stumpy drank one of the shots. “The raiders at the camp we set up said one of the sweep teams out in the mountains would take care of it, since they were closer, but I don’t know what happened after.” She reached over and grabbed one of the two remaining shots, grimacing a little as it went down.

“The red man made a bloody angel in the snow while the eyes had a fantastic little party.” Krieg told them, resting his head in the palm of his bandaged hand. “A big, bloody party, with lots of gifts to go around!” He still had yet to give that shotgun he grabbed off that one bandit a closer look. Maybe once he got back to the house, he could sit down and give it once-over. 

The pretty boy opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but stopped midway, and when Krieg looked him in the eye, he seemed to balk and decided to shut up.

“So… he died, huh?” The gray man asked, but the question was more of a confirmation than anything. Krieg looked him in the eye as well, and he had none of the weird nervousness that the others looked at him with. “Too bad. Sounds like you took care of them Bloodshots that got ‘em, though, I’d bet.”

Krieg smirked. “The eye sees all.”

The others seemed to have relaxed a little bit, probably under the assumption that he hadn’t heard their argument. He didn’t give a damn if they knew he heard or not, but it was probably for the best if they didn’t; they’d just keep acting weird around him until it became downright unbearable for everyone involved. Not to mention they’d likely try to ask for his _ opinion, _as if it mattered. 

The vault hunters and the gray man fell back into casual conversation, with each of them taking turns telling stories from when they were all younger. Krieg, himself, had no desire to tell them anything of what happened that he could remember, as the last few months were mostly a haze of hunger and desperation, locked into survival mode, and the Little Man’s life was vague at best and mostly boring. Mostly snippets, really, flashes of feelings and the occasional glimpse of what could be a dream just as easily as it could be a memory. 

Regardless, the more time wore on, and the more shots he and the others had, Krieg felt himself relax just a little bit, enough to verbally react once or twice to some of the stories that he actually paid attention to. 

It wasn’t exactly the situation he wanted to end up in, but he supposed he could make it work. Somehow, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salvador, smacking Axton with a broom: Learn! Some fucking! Manners!!!!


	18. How You Shine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trust is hard work, yall

Maya had a lot of regrets. 

After a horrendous few hours of fitful, dreamless sleep, she woke up wishing for death to claim her. As she lay face down on her bed in the room she now shared with Gaige, she tried to recall the events that led to her to her current predicament.

The bar… she remembered the bar. After her and Axton had driven one of the Raider trucks filled with the supplies that Hammerlock had brought back from the Shelf up to Sanctuary, along with a very enthusiastic Claptrap riding in the bed, she received a text from Salvador telling them to meet up at a place called Moxxi’s.

Her first regret was voicing the nagging thoughts she’d had regarding Krieg, and the ensuing lecture from the normally agreeable Salvador. The man was right, though; Maya hadn’t realized until he said his piece just how much she’d been judging Krieg for who he was with absolutely no consideration for his individuality, and it brought her a great deal of shame to remember Salvador’s words. They might have been directed more towards Axton at the time, but she knew damn well that they applied to her just as much as they did to the poster boy.

She knew there was no excuse for her actions, and it was her responsibility as Krieg’s- well, Maya wasn’t really sure she could consider him a _ friend, _ more like a comrade than anything. His roommate, maybe? Teammate? Ah, it wasn’t important. The fact remained that she recognized that it was her responsibility to the man to treat him like an equal instead of acting like he was somehow less than that simply because he was different from most people. 

Her second regret was the shot of tequila she drank immediately afterwards, as if the heat of it would burn away her shame. It didn’t, and neither did the shots she took after that. Maya was no stranger to drinking, and she felt confident in her ability to hold her own, but she was used to the very low content wines and ales the monks brewed - and usually in moderation. She had even stopped by the house on the way and grabbed a quick bite to eat before meeting up, _ and _they decided to split a pizza about halfway through the evening. 

Her third regret was that she didn’t _ stop, _ although she did at least try to space the shots out so as not to lose herself _ too _quickly. 

Between her, Salvador, Axton, and Zed, the four of them had plenty of stories to go around, some of which Krieg actually _ laughed _at, even if he didn’t feel like sharing. Eventually, it all started to blur together. By the time they decided to call it a day and head back to the house, Maya was a giggling mess, cackling at every little thing the guys said or did. 

The walk from the bar to the house was a bit unclear. From what she could recall, she had to rely on the combined efforts of Axton and Krieg just to make the journey; her and Axton tried to lean on one another for support, with each throwing an arm around the other’s shoulder, but he was hardly doing much better than her. Salvador stayed behind to chat some more with Zed, so it fell to Krieg to help them out. While Axton was stumbling along on Maya’s left, Krieg had come around to her right and steadied her with an arm around her waist, and Maya repaid his kindness by holding on for dear life, lest she be dragged down with Axton. 

Thinking back on it, she was surprised at how well Krieg had held up. He'd drunk more than any of them, including Salvador, and yet he wasn’t nearly as trashed as any of them. He was either incredibly good at getting himself to function, or he had a crazy high alcohol tolerance. For someone of his size, though, that wouldn't be too much of a stretch. 

Her fourth regret was that she hadn’t made any attempt to get ready for bed like she usually did. Not that she would have been able to. Once the three of them ascended the stairs, Axton let go and stumbled over to the room he shared with Salvador, leaving Krieg to escort her to her own bed, where she promptly shed her jacket and collapsed onto the mattress. The last thing she remembered before passing out was the vague sensation of her shoes being tugged off and the sound of her door being shut. 

Pushing herself up onto her knees, Maya looked around the room. The blinds covering the window were closed, but the bright light that shone through the thin gaps in the slats was agonizing. 

Oh, _ damn, _ did she feel like shit. Everything was so _ hot, _too. 

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Maya desperately tried to pull her clothes off, struggling against the sweaty fabric that seemed determined to stick to her no matter what. Once it was all in a pile on the rumpled blanket next to her, she let out a heavy sigh and watched the dust floating in the air.

She scratched at the indents her clothes had made in her skin, let out another sigh and pushed herself to her feet, then dropped to her knees in front of her dresser. After a slow dig through the folded clothes, she pulled on a green tank top and a pair of black shorts.

The rest of the house was nice and cool compared to her stifling room. Maya slowly made her way downstairs - keeping a hand on the wall for support - to find Krieg situated at the table. 

He didn’t seem to notice her standing at the base of the stairs, apparently too engrossed in the gun he was meticulously cleaning. What was weirder, though, was that he didn’t have his mask on. The mask was instead laying on the table next to an empty plate and a glass half full with water. 

Maya struggled for a second to actually get a better look at his previously hidden face, but between her blurry vision, pounding head, and the merciless light of day coming in through the windows, focusing was the last thing she wanted to do. Besides, it felt like she was invading his privacy by sneaking a peak without him knowing, so she turned away and continued on to the bathroom. 

* * *

The rifle was a pleasant distraction. Krieg had no idea when the last time the Little Man had used a gun was, let alone the last time he took apart and cleaned one, but it wasn’t too hard to get reacquainted with the motions. It was more muscle memory than anything, really, the tedious and repetitive motions more familiar than any half-forgotten song could ever be. Comforting, almost, even if it was accompanied by the sound of one of the Little Man’s ghosts chattering across the table, that same low-voiced woman who had a habit of falling back into his second tongue as she rambled on about proper gun maintenance. 

The Little Man was quiet. There were occasions where he would go silent for extended periods of time, the intangible presence of him in the back of Krieg’s head disappearing and leaving him alone for a blessed break from his bullshit. Unlike those times, he could still feel him there, watching. It was weird, but his silence was not unwelcome. 

The kid had been texting him ever since he got up, going on and on about how the raiders had her and the ninja helping the handsome mustache man from the glacier work on some of his research. Her texts didn’t offer much clarity, but the man had apparently gotten so frustrated with his lack of progress that in a fit of rage he suggested renaming bullymongs to “Bonerfarts.”

Now _ that _ got a good laugh out of both him _ and _the Little Man. 

He pulled his mask back on when he saw the bathroom door open and the pretty lady emerged looking a little less like shit than she had before. She asked if he would accompany her somewhere in town. Said something about receiving a call from someone who wanted her assistance on a delicate matter. She seemed loathe to do it by herself, for some God-awful reason he couldn’t fathom. What the hell, he figured, it wasn’t like he had anything else he needed to do besides sit on his ass. 

While she took a few minutes to go upstairs and dress, Krieg dropped his plate and fork in the kitchen sink, then put the rifle back together. 

The sun had only continued to rise since they got back to the house, and was finally approaching midday when he and the siren eventually stepped back outside. As they walked down the narrow streets, she thanked him for helping her and the pretty boy make it back from Moxxi’s. The Little Man felt disgustingly warm and fuzzy while Krieg rolled his eyes and looked away with a grunt. 

Maya slowed her stride when she started elaborating more on the task she’d been asked to help with, looking over at him as if to make sure he was still there. If he had any sense, Krieg would have turned around and walked away the second she mentioned that the town’s _ doctor _ wanted her help. Which meant that she wanted _ him _to expose himself to whatever bullshit the bastard was bound to say. 

He should have walked away. 

Instead, Krieg stopped and narrowed his eyes at the siren, who looked like she had been expecting it. “Oh, the _ wonders _ of modern _ medicine. _” He said. “What color will he make us bleed?”

“He’s not a bad guy!” Maya said quickly, a bit of panic in her tired eyes. When Krieg gave her an “oh, really?” kind of look, she opened her mouth to say more, hesitated, and fidgeted with the sleeves of her jacket. “He doesn’t strike me as a terribly dishonest person… and besides, you’ve already met him.” She added the last part quietly, almost like an afterthought.

Already met him…? Oh. _ Oh _ . Oh, of course. Salvador’s “friend.” So _ that’s _what that was all about. How clever of them to set that up like that. For a second, Krieg wondered if it was a spur of the moment kinda thing or something they’d been planning since he and the vault hunters arrived. 

The gray man, huh? He seemed like a relaxed kind of person, all things considered, and Krieg would be lying if he said he hadn’t liked listening to him drawl on at the bar at least a little bit. But the doctor, though? Shit, that was all kinds of bad news.

Krieg let out an annoyed huff and crossed his arms. "The man who sleeps with a machete is a fool every night but one."

The blue lady gave him another quizzical look. "He's not… you don't… What is it you're worried about?"

"Doctors, scientists, all part of the same twisted field of exploitation, all of them vying for the powers that be!" He threw his hands up in frustration. "A blade in the back or a blade in the face, it doesn't matter as long as the blood runs and runs hot, runs until their crystalline purple goo is all that's left!" Why was it so difficult for her to understand how dangerous people like the gray man were? How easy it was for them to become more than what they seemed, to become obsessed with slag until that's all that's left in them?

"Please, just give him a chance, ok?" She was almost begging at that point. "You don't even have to stay if you don't want to, alright? All I'm asking is you give him a chance to prove he's not like… whoever it is you're talking about. I know trusting people you don't know is difficult, believe me, I do, but my gut is telling me he's not _all_ bad, mostly. We've trusted each other this far, let's just trust each other a little bit longer."

Whatever. The man had met Krieg and had ample time to observe him, so the damage was already done. He'd go with Maya to see what kind of "help" he wanted, but only to make sure he wasn't planning any kind of funny business.

If it came down to it, he'd kill him if he showed any sign of that awful curiosity that drove everyone like him, that sick, sadistic urge to dissect Krieg like a fucking science project. 

_ No. You're not killing him. That's the deal, remember? You can kill as many of the deserving as you like, but the second your axe touches the flesh of an innocent, the second you lay a hand on anyone in Sanctuary, I'll end it. All of it. Don't think for a moment that I'll let you get away with the cold-blooded murder of the undeserving. _

Oh, for the love of holy Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Who was he to decide who deserves death and who gets to live? As far as Krieg was concerned, moral purity and innocence doesn't mean shit. "Undeserving?" He had yet to meet a single person who hadn't done something at some point in their life that could mark them as deserving death, but who could judge them? Who would be responsible for judging who deserves to live and who deserves to die? God? God was a lie, a delusion built up to comfort those who couldn't face reality. The Little Man had been a fool to buy into that delusion for so long, and even though he'd thrown it all away in his grief and anger, the remnants still tickled the back of his head. 

No, there was no God to tell him who deserved death. Like everyone else in the twice-damned universe, the Little Man had only his _ opinion _.

And in _ Krieg's _opinion, it didn't matter one way or another if the one on the receiving end of his axe had done something to deserve it. As far as he cared, they'd all die eventually. 

But still… the Little Man was quite fond of telling him how he'd take back control, and while Krieg was careful to keep a firm grip on that pesky voice, he wasn't entirely sure he could keep him out if he pushed him too far. The Little Man had been weak, sure, but he'd been pushed further than that coward and Mother thought possible before he finally snapped and handed off the reins. If Krieg were to well and truly piss him off, to go just beyond what he could tolerate, he might not be able to hold him down. He might be an annoying voice, but he was still the template from which Krieg was drawn. He needed to be kept down at all costs.

What a frustrating situation to be in.

The siren got a concerned look on her face. "Uhh, Krieg…? You still with me, dude?"

Krieg sighed and dropped his head to stare at the ground, shoulders slumping. "To mr. Frankenstein's lair." He wanted to get it over with before he changed his mind.

Following her lead once again, he allowed himself to be led back to the front of the clinic from the other day. Like the first time he saw it, the giant needle in the sign made his stomach drop and his mouth go dry, but this time he was prepared for it. He turned his head down to avoid looking at it as much as possible. By the time they reached the door, he had started the shaking again, although it wasn't yet as bad as the first time. With any luck, he'd be able to keep it under enough control so as to appear unbothered. 

Maya knocked on the door, then opened it to poke her head in. "Uh, Doctor Blanco?" She called. "You said you wanted my help with something?"

The sound of the gray man speaking drifted out to them, confirming that he did and urging them to quickly step inside. 

Once in, Krieg immediately wanted to go back out. Inside the clinic was something out of his nightmares, or so he assumed: sterile, white, brightly lit, tools setting on trays in a corner, and worst of all, that sickeningly clean scent of antiseptic. It all made him want to vomit. Maybe run. Probably both. 

In the back right corner of the clinic, a curtain had been pulled. The siren walked over to it and pulled it back some, then recoiled in shock at whatever it was she saw.

"Oh! Wow!" She exclaimed. "We can come back later if you're busy."

"No, no, this is what I wanted your help with, actually." There was the distinct sound of a metal tool being set down on a tray, cutting through Krieg's ears like a bullet and making him flinch. 

"The boys brought this poor bastard in some few hours ago." The gray man explained. "Got somethin' lodged on in 'im, but I can't for the life of me safely get to it without some serious risk to his vital organs."

"So what do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, you've got some kinda healin' power, ain't ya? You think there's anythin' you can do? I'd like to avoid as much risk as I can, but I could always use an extra set of hands if you can't."

Krieg looked around the small room for something to distract him, but everywhere he looked, there were reminders. He sat down on the tile and crossed his legs, staring at the grooves between them as he listened, fidgeting all the while.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see what I can do. Do you have an extra pair of gloves?" The siren asked. 

For the next few minutes, Krieg listened to the blue lady and the gray man work on whatever hapless fucker lay before them. Between the pounding of his heart, the rush of blood in his ears, and the incessant beeping of an EKG, he managed to hold out long enough to hear a triumphant shout from the both of them before the room became too much. As he stood and turned to leave, he heard an exasperated sound from the gray man.

"Aw, a friggin' chunk of eridium, seriously?"

Krieg stopped with his hand on the door handle. He turned his head to the side to listen closer.

"I dunno how many times I gotta tell people not to swallow this stuff!" The gray man continued.

"Why would he swallow an eridium rock?" Maya asked him.

"Lotta dumbasses out here seem to think it'll give 'em slag powers or some shit, but all it does is block 'em up. Not like it'll do 'em any good, even if it didn't."

"Why's that?"

The gray man sighed. "Here. Take a look at it. See how it's all lumpy and shit? It ain't refined, so there ain't a whole lotta actual eridium in it to really do much of anythin' to ya."

"So it needs to be refined and purified to be toxic?"

"For the most part. But be careful, though, that don't mean it _ can't _ do any harm. Just not _ as _much, you get me?"

Having heard enough, Krieg pulled the door open and stepped outside. He heard the two inside speak indistinctly while he tried to keep his trembling down. It could have ended a lot worse, but that didn't mean he was happy with the results. 

Leaning against the wall to the right of the door, he closed his eyes. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Wasn't that how it was supposed to work? He could just barely remember a snippet from some long-gone conversation, the empty voice of a ghost telling him to control his breathing.

_ Just breathe, big guy. Just breathe. _

The talking inside stopped for a moment, followed by some shuffling and the sound of something being moved, then the talking resumed more quietly. He couldn't make out individual words, but Maya sounded concerned about something and the doctor sounded apologetic. When he heard them get closer to the door, he opened his eyes and crossed his arms, focusing on the street and the people meandering down it. He balled his hands into fists to hide the fact that he was still shaking. 

The blue lady emerged first, followed by the gray man. He was still wearing the same gray-green shirt, and in the light of the day it was flecked with old bloodstains down the front. There were a few specks of blood on his exposed forearms, along with some wet reddish streaks. He must have rinsed his hands and arms off, though he clearly didn't get everything. A surgical mask hung around his neck, which he grabbed and stuffed into a pocket.

"Krieg, good to see you still hangin' in there. How's the day been treatin' ya?" The gray man seemed a little surprised to see him.

He responded by tilting his head side to side and making a long, half-hearted "Hmmmph" sound.

"How’s that burn of yours feelin’?"

The burn…? Oh. Right. If he could take care of a bullet in a few hours, then a sunburn, and windburn, wasn’t much more of an issue. There were a few places, like his shoulders and scalp, that were still tender, but it had healed. It had faded into more of a tan, at that point. 

“Smokin’, baby.”

“Good, good…” The gray man nodded slowly. “Miss Maya says she and that boy Axton brought that obnoxious little Claptrap back with them, and that your guys’ next stop is to find him. I don’t suppose y'all'd mind if I tagged along until you did, would ya? Little shit owes me money.” 

_ I’m alri ght with it. _

That was an awful idea. He may not have been in his clinic with all his tools and _ equipment, _but that didn’t mean he had no ulterior motives. But if the gray man was going to try and get into his business, Krieg would rather be able to keep an eye on him. Who’s to say he wouldn’t simply follow him and the siren once they left? No, it would be better to accept and make damn sure he wasn’t up to anything. 

The claptrap, though? Ugh. Well, that tin can promised a reward for that ‘mong fur, and it was past time he collected.

Krieg eyed the gray man for a moment, shifted his weight to the side, then responded with a grunt and a shrug. 

“Well, it ain’t a no.” 

“Do you have any idea where Claptrap might be?” Maya asked the gray man. 

He made a long “Ehhhhh” sound and rubbed his chin, his other hand resting on his hip. “Well, he used to keep to himself, what with everyone gettin' annoyed if he hung out too long. He’s got a habit of makin’ shit outta trash and scrap, so I’d say anywhere he can do that while also stayin’ outta the way.”

“Ok, but, um… that doesn’t really… that’s not… You know Sanctuary better than Krieg and I.”

The gray man dropped his hand to his side. “Ah, hell, that’s right. No matter. Let’s go pay old Scoots a visit, Claptrap’s bound to have stopped by his garage at least once.” He gestured to his right, then started off down the street, Maya quickly following after him. 

Old Scoots? The hell kind of a name was that? Krieg followed behind them. 

As they followed the gray man, the siren asked him who he was talking about. Apparently the person responsible for making and running the Catch-A-Ride system lived in town, a guy named Scooter Hodunk. 

It didn’t take more than a minute or two for them to reach his garage. The gray man brought them before a metal door on the side of some warehouse near Sanctuary’s gates. He knocked loudly a couple times, then turned the handle and stuck his head in, shouting and asking if the guy was there. A response came in the form of a heavily accented voice resonating indistinctly from somewhere deeper in the warehouse. The gray man pushed the door open the rest of the way and bid them to follow.

The door led them to a metal walkway littered with boxes upon boxes of scrap, mechanical parts, tools, half-eaten food, and discarded trash, stacked on shelves, tables, and spilling out onto the floor where it couldn’t be contained. Ahead of him, tucked into a corner behind some metal shelves, Krieg could see a messy bed. The floor around it was littered with what looked like piles of clothes and yet more bullshit. 

A stairway to the left led them down into what looked like the garage part of the warehouse, judging by the vehicles jacked up in the center. A pair of legs slid out from underneath one as they descended to reveal an incredibly filthy hillbilly.

“Aw, hey! Whatchu been up to, man?” The hillbilly grinned as he sat up on his squeaky little creeper and saw them. “You bring me some new friends or somethin’?”

“Guess you could put it that way.” The gray man told him. “This here’s two a them vault hunters that got in the other day.” He moved to the left so he could face all three of them. “The good man here's Krieg, and our lady here’s Miss Maya.”

“Good man?” What in the goddamn could have possibly possessed him to call Krieg a “good man?"

“And this,” he carried on. “Is Scooter. He's Sanctuary's primary mechanic.”

Scooter whistled and went wide-eyed as Zed made the introductions. “Whew-ee! Hope you don’t mind me sayin’, missy, but ain’t you the prettiest little lady this side of the divide! Well, maybe 'cept for my mama and miss Lil- I mean, uh, my sweet sister."

Maya was taken aback, but she seemed more confused than offended. “Uh… thanks? I think?”

When Scooter pulled his attention away from the blue lady over to Krieg, he did a double take. His eyes went even wider than when he saw Maya. “Daaaamn, son! You take one too many slag baths out there with them skags? I knew that stuff’s all kindsa nasty, but it sure do getcha some crazy as _ hell _shit.”

_ If I were in a better situation, both mentally and physically, I _ might _ consider accepting that as a compliment, but as it is now, that's entirely unwarranted. _

Krieg growled low in response. That wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, let alone hear mentioned. The greasy little hick didn’t seem put off in the slightest, which only managed to irritate him even more. 

The gray man asked the hick about the claptrap unit, but Krieg didn't hear what the answer was. He was too busy checking out everything in the garage. Like the loft, it was littered with car parts, scrapped machines and robots, yet more tools, half-completed projects, and everything in between.

When the hick was done, Zed and Maya bid him goodbye, and Krieg followed them back out. The two of them talked about the hick as they walked back through Sanctuary, with the gray man telling her a bit of personal history he had with him. Apparently the hick was the son of that bartender lady. 

_ He seems nice, at the very least. _

Eventually, the gray man led them to a corner of the town that looked a little more shitty than the rest of it, a feat Krieg didn't think was possible. They found that annoying little robot in some alley crammed between an abandoned house and a bricked up store. The alley widened into a little area scattered with trash and scrap, all of it either pushed up into a corner, or being used to create a dinky shack. The claptrap was digging through the trash pile and muttering to itself.

Zed loudly knocked on a sheet of bent metal leaning against the concrete wall of the alley to catch its attention.

The robot let out an ear-grating wail of surprise and whipped around. "Zed, my old friend! 

The gray man dropped his face into his hand and sighed.

"And you brought my minions, too!"

"Uh, yeah, hi, Claptrap, we-" Maya started, only to be cut off with an "oof!" as the robot barreled into her. "Yeah, it's… good to see you, too, buddy." 

The robot attempted to run up to the gray man once it was done hugging the siren, only to be stopped by him reflexively putting his leg up to stop it. The robot ran face-first into the sole of his boot. It didn’t seem put off. 

It seemed to have gotten over its fear of Krieg since the last time he saw it, as it rolled over to him as well. Latching onto his leg, the annoying robot started chattering about how it just _ knew _ he would “come back for old Claptrap” or something along those lines. He managed to shake the damn thing off before it started leaking all over him, thankfully. 

"_ You _still owe me money, you sneaky little shit." The gray man planted his hands on his hips and leaned forward.

The robot jumped as if it had been shocked with electricity. "Aaah! Aw, Zed, can't you give your old pal a break? 

"Nuh-uh. I told you a long ass time ago I wasn't gonna let you off the hook for this one, so pay up." He stood straight and held a hand out expectantly. "C'mon, now."

Letting out a heavily mechanized sigh, the robot scooted into the shack, then quickly returned with a small clip of folded cash. 

“Hey, uh, Claptrap?” Maya said as Zed counted the cash. “You said you- you said that you had something you wanted to show me on our way back to Sanctuary, right?”

“Yes!” The robot disappeared into the shack a second time.

While the robot dug around and chattered to itself, the gray man shoved the cash into another pocket, said something about needing to get back to the clinic, said his goodbyes, and left. Krieg had half a mind to do the same; he wanted to see if he could fiddle more with that rifle from the mustache man and make it a little easier to handle with his left. Instead, he swung his arms and rubbed the tips of his fingers together, looking around restlessly at the gray walls surrounding him as the fire built up a bit and swirled around in his veins. 

He only half listened as the claptrap unit returned, having apparently found what it was looking for. The siren said something to it with a surprised tone in her voice. Krieg snapped to attention when he heard his name being said. Maya was looking at him. 

“Did you ever give that fur to Claptrap?” 

No, of course he hadn’t, and she should have known that. The question sounded more like a reminder, though. Pulling his echo off his belt, he looked through the storage files until he found the bundle of fur, then tossed it to the little ‘bot without a word.

The damn thing let out a wail as the fur thumped into its face. “_ Minion! _ You really _ do _ care about me! I’m so happy, I could _ cry!” _

_ Please don’t. _

“Even though you’re a little bit late, and you _ did _ give some to Hammerlock, you still deserve a reward. THEREFORE-” it raised an arm like it was pointing towards the sky. “I have a secret stash hidden very very far away from where we currently are! In order to find it, you will have to perform a series of _ devious _ challenges. First-” 

Krieg sighed as it began rattling off an extensive list of absurd challenges it wanted him to do, getting progressively more dramatic the longer it went on. What was it the robot said it would trade in exchange for the fur? A shotgun? He already had that shotgun he pulled off the dead bandit, but he could probably pull them both apart and see what he could make, or just toss whichever one was in worse condition. Maybe Stumpy would be willing to take one. Or maybe he could show the kid how to shoot it.

As he looked back around, Maya gave him an apologetic look. A glimmer out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. On the other side of the siren, he saw a few rusted lockers propped up against the alley wall, some of them obscured by sheet metal. Sunlight glinted off something inside one of the exposed lockers, the door on it crumpled, bent, and barely hanging off the hinges. What was that? 

Krieg stepped around the blue lady over to the lockers, then looked back at the claptrap as it started laughing like some evil villain. He turned to the locker, raised his braced arm, and smacked the top of the locker with his fist. The door fell away, revealing a filthy shotgun leaning haphazardly inside, along with several clumps of ratty feathers crusted with dried blood.

He pointedly looked the robot in its expressionless eye. 

“Oh. Crap.” Its arm drooped and fell back to its side. Maya began to snicker into her hand. “It, uh… it looks like the hiding space for my super-secret stash just fell apart, leaving it completely exposed. So... congratulations! You successfully subverted my meticulously planned challenges!” 

Rolling his eyes, Krieg yanked the gun out of the locker and shook the feathers off before placing it in the file the fur had occupied. 

Once the siren stopped her cute laughing, she told the robot something about having something else to do, and that they should be off. Thank God, honestly, he was already getting sick of the tiny bastard. The robot waved a little too enthusiastically for Krieg’s liking as he followed the siren out of the alley. At least it wasn’t a _ complete _waste of time. 

_ Aw, he’s not too bad. A little rowdy, but he’s chipper enough. _

That was the _ problem, _ though. Of course the Little Man would like the robot, but that didn’t mean _ he _had to like it. 

He followed the siren through the streets and put the robot out of his mind.

* * *

There was only so much time Maya could put off confronting the commander Roland for. She'd hoped that the call from Dr. Blanco would distract her from the knife twisting around her insides, or at the very least give her a little bit more time to settle her nerves. 

It hadn't. 

If anything, her procrastination had only made her more anxious. She knew better than to keep putting it off, though, so once her and Krieg managed to get away from Claptrap, she began making her way to the command center. 

What was she even going to _ say? _"Hi, I'm a siren, please don't treat me like a weapon"? "Hi, I want to help you guys, but that's not why I'm here, so don't try to control me unless you want to die"? That was hardly what she'd call diplomatic. 

The town still being mostly unfamiliar, she had to stop to check a town map posted on the side of a news stand, staring at it as if it would reveal the right way to talk to the commander. It all seemed like a jumbled mess of faded lines and arrows.

"Hey, uh, Krieg?" She looked over to where he stood, somewhere to her right.

After a few seconds, he turned away from the clouds to her.

"I, um, I just, y'know, I, uh… thanks for, uh, for coming with me. I know you, ah, you didn't have to, but, ah… thanks." 

Krieg tilted his head, but seemed otherwise unfazed by the statement.

Real smooth, she thought to herself, way to fuck that up.

Maya picked at the zipper of her jacket. "I need to tell commander Roland I'm… about what I am. I'm not really sure if I can trust these guys until I know how they'll react to that. I wanted to wait a while until I had a chance to make up my mind on if I should trust them or not, but the longer I wait, the harder it'll be to back out if it turns out I can't trust them, y'know?" She looked back at him, but still he hadn't said anything. He didn't seem quite as irritated as before, though, which was a good sign.

"Maybe I'm making a bad call on this. I don't know. It could just be my nerves, but regardless, I…" Shit, how the hell was she gonna be able to phrase what she needed to say?

"…I don't know. I don't want this to end up like the Order again. I'm just… it seems like you get it, I suppose. The trust thing, I mean. I know you didn't ask for me to lay all this on you, so…" She trailed off, unsure of how to proceed from there.

Was that really a good idea, telling him all that? For all she knew, he could've been playing her, as well, could've been another stranger she couldn't trust. She'd been trying to really _ look _at him since she got up, try and listen to what Salvador told Axton and look at what was underneath his eccentricities. He seemed like he understood, and if he really was a victim of Hyperion, then maybe he could relate, even if he wasn't completely trustworthy. A case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" or however it went.

It wasn't what she was expecting, but Krieg raised his braced hand and patted her shoulder, a gesture caught somewhere halfway between borderline compassionate and supportive. "Pop some heads."

It was Maya's turn to tilt her head, taken aback. "Uh… yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right. I… yeah. Let's just get this over with, then, I guess." 

When she was sure of how to get back to the command center, they left the map behind. 

Like when they first arrived, the door was flanked by Raiders. Unlike then, there were only three, two of which were leaning on a wall and chatting, while the third stood guard with a rifle in hand. The two chatting watched them approach, but said nothing to them. The one at the door stepped forward.

"If you're looking for reassignment, Jessop's down at the shield generator." 

"I was hoping I could have a word with the commander, if it's not too much trouble." Maya told her.

The raider rolled a shoulder in its socket. "Ehhh, he's kinda busy at the moment. He's up in a meeting." 

Of course he would be busy. "I can wait. How long do you think he'll be?"

The raider leaned into an echo on her shoulder. She spoke with whoever was on the other end for a moment before looking back up at them. "What are your names and ranks?"

"I'm Maya, and this is Krieg. We only got in just the other day, so we're not technically Raiders yet."

She leaned back into the echo and relayed the information. "You can head on in. He's up in the war room." The raider stepped back to the side to let them pass.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Just watch out for Tannis."

Tannis? _ Doctor _ Tannis? Hammerlock _did _said she was in Sanctuary, after all. Maya still had the research notes tucked away in her storage, so maybe if the commander was receptive to the news, she could ask Dr. Tannis what she knew about sirens. There was also that piece of unrefined eridium she and Dr. Blanco pulled out of that man’s stomach that he wanted taken over to the command center.

They entered the building and headed up the stairs they took when they arrived. At the first landing, Maya could hear the high-pitched sound of someone ranting on and on about something she couldn’t quite make out. At the second landing, the ranting stopped for a moment as the distinct voice of the commander spoke. The ranting resumed as they went down the hall and turned into the room with the vault. The door to the war room was closed.

Maya lingered for a moment in the center of the room, then took a seat on a ratty couch pushed against a wall. Krieg followed suit and plopped down to her right, tossing one of his arms over the backside and leaning his head back. She pulled one of her books out to pass the time while waiting, however long that would be. A few times, she tuned in to what the people in the war room were saying, but could only catch snippets; something about the Bloodshot bandits and a fire-worshipping cult. Krieg was bouncing one of his legs the entire time and making one of the floor planks rattle a bit, and kept muttering to himself about a man, or fire, or maybe a burning man. She wasn’t sure. 

They waited for a good 20 minutes before the door to the war room swung open as a shaking, sweating woman went to leave. The second she registered that there were people in the room, she let out a short, shrill scream and recoiled, covering her face with her hands. Maya didn’t know how to react. She stared at the woman in confusion as she proceeded to make an awful gagging noise and booked it to the hall.

Three raiders in the same red armor filed out after the woman, leaving the commander visible through the doorway, pinching the bridge of his nose as he leaned against the table. Maya stood and knocked on the wall next to the door to make her presence known. The commander ushered them inside with a wave of his hand.

“What is it, vault hunter?”

Shit. Now that she was in front of him, Maya had no idea how to broach the subject. All of the different lines she thought of on the way there left her mind as she opened her mouth to speak and blanked.

The commander ticked an eyebrow up a bit as he watched her.

“I wasn’t exactly straightforward with you when we first met.” She finally got out.

He crossed his arms and waited. “Can’t fault you for that. What’s on your mind?”

Maya forced air through her nose, then turned to shut the door. Krieg had gotten up from the couch and had moved to lean against the wall next to the door, watching the commander intently. When the door clicked shut, Maya faced the commander again and unzipped her jacket, pulling her right arm out, then the left, and dropping it to the floor. 

The commander’s eyes widened a bit when he saw her tattoos, but he looked rightfully skeptical.

“Don’t get many people out here claiming to be sirens.” He said. “None that live long afterwards, anyhow.” 

Behind her, Krieg made a low growling noise. 

“But those tattoos look pretty damn real.”

Maya had no idea what to say, so she looked around the room for a second until she found something small and easy to grab. Reaching her arm out, she tentatively phaselocked a soda can overturned on a chair, pulled it over to the space between her and the commander, crushed it, and tossed it through the air into a trash bin in a corner.

It took a few moments for the commander to respond. He looked from Maya, to the trash, back to Maya, looked around the room, let out a short laugh of disbelief, dragged a hand down his face. “I, uh… damn. I gotta admit, that wasn’t… I wasn’t really expecting a-a an honest to god _ siren _ to show up.”

“Yeah…” Maya started. “I wanted to apologize for not telling you when we first arrived, but…”

“You weren’t sure if you could trust us, I understand. It’s a big risk to take, no doubt about it. But you haven’t been with us that long, so I guess I gotta ask: why tell me now, instead of waiting? I can’t imagine you’ve had enough time to decide if you trust the Raiders or not.”

The commander seemed to be taking the news better than she thought he would, but she wasn’t in the clear yet. He was sharp.

"To be honest…" Maya scratched the back of her head. "I didn't want to wait because the longer I wait, the harder it would be to get out if it turned out you guys couldn't be trusted. If that makes sense. I'm not here for you guys to use or exploit in order to get to Hyperion, and if anyone tries, I'm fully prepared to defend myself if I feel they pose a threat to me." She probably didn't need to get so defensive at the end, but she needed him to understand what she was risking, and what the Raiders would be risking if they got the wrong ideas.

The commander nodded along as if in agreement. "Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a pretty damn justifiable concern, and I can't blame you for being cautious. My word probably doesn't mean much to you now, but I can promise you that the Crimson Raiders aren't out for power. We're here to stop Jack and Hyperion from getting the vault, and while I admit, we could definitely use an- could definitely use a siren on our side, I'm not gonna try to force you to help if you don't want to. As long as you don't try and join Jack and turn on us, we shouldn't have any reason to not work together."

Well! Maya was still on the fence about the whole ordeal, but she did feel better about it all. Her gut told her he was being honest, so she could at least trust him enough to not be a controlling asshole. At the moment, anyways. She would have to keep a close eye on him and his behavior to make sure it stayed that way.

She exhaled forcefully as the knife in her stomach pushed itself out and was replaced with relief. "Great, that's… great, yeah. Ok, um… yeah. I came to Pandora so I could see if I could learn anything about sirens, but, if you can guess, that's not really going super well right now." Maya absentmindedly ran her hand along the tattoos on her bicep, then leaned down to pick up her jacket off the floor and draped it over arm.

"Right, right. Zed's report on you guys said you came from Athenas? You wouldn't happen to have been part of the-"

"The Order of the Impending Storm? Yeah, I was."

The commander set the heels of his hands on the edge of the table, his shoulders dropping as he relaxed marginally and leaned back. Something seemed to click in his mind, judging by the glimmer in his eyes. "So _ you're _ the infamous queen of Athenas. Always thought that was just a lie put out by the Order. It's hard to believe it was actually _ true. _"

Maya was confused. She shifted her weight around and raised her eyebrows in question. "What do you mean? You've heard about me?" 

"Anyone who's been to that neck of the woods has probably heard about you. For a long time when I was growing up, there were rumors that a siren had been found on Athenas, but everyone thought it was just stories. Wasn't until a few years back that the Order made some kind of semi-official statement saying they'd found another queen to replace the one that died a while back. I, and a lot of other people, found it hard to believe, thought it was just something they did for looks, but a… a friend of mine believed it. Always wanted to grab a shuttle down there and see if she could meet this famed siren queen, but she never really got a chance."

Huh. Well, that was all news to Maya, though it was hardly surprising. It left a bad taste in her mouth to know that even through everything she'd been through growing up and living with the Order, there were countless people outside of Athenas who knew about her. The fact that her existence was apparently a matter of _ opinion _ to most people made her feel weird, like some kind of cryptid. To the people of Athenas, she was a monster that haunted everyone's dreams, the threat of power the monks held over their heads, but this was a whole new brand of _ bad. _

Was it bad? Or just different? Did it matter? She wondered what kind of news would be coming from Athenas and the Order now that she had left. Maya would have to remember to check later.

"Well, I, um… Damn, I don't really know what to say to that." She let out a nervous chuckle and moved her jacket to her other arm, then looked around the room. "I wasn't a queen. The monks raised me to be their, uh… they raised me to be some kind of thug they could use to mete out whatever punishment they felt the people deserved, and used that image to control and extort them. It's… or it was, at least, just about power and control for them. They didn't give a damn about Athenas tradition or it's people so long as they got to pull the strings."

"Sounds like hell." The commander nodded sympathetically. "I appreciate you coming forward and being honest about this. I'm sure you're more than capable of handling yourself, but it's still a big risk. That being said, I think that still leaves us with more questions than answers regarding how you and the other vault hunters will fit into this whole mess."

That it did, then. However, Maya was still unsure if she wanted to wholly commit to the Crimson Raiders and join in earnest, even if the others did. She had her doubts Krieg would, as well. To her right, he was still leaning against the wall, one foot crossed over the other, arms crossed and staring intently at the commander. 

Maya hadn't actually considered where her meeting with the commander would go, and so what she assumed would just be a short little visit turned into an entire ordeal that lasted around an hour or two. The commander had her and Krieg take a seat at the table with him while they talked, going over and discussing at length Maya's abilities and how she could best use them to help, as well as how they could avoid making her too much of a target. 

When the topic of how the other vault hunters would fit in, Maya was able to get them on her echo to hear their opinions on the matter.

By the time they reached an agreement, she was actively starving and itching to get out and do something. Any anxiety she felt going into the command center had long gone. 

As the commander walked with them downstairs to see them out, Maya was suddenly reminded of the eridium. Stopping in the doorway, she retrieved the chunk of eridium from the pocket of her jacket, still partially covered in streaks of dried blood, and informed the commander of what Zed had asked her to do. He took the rock and thanked her for her help, then bid the both of them goodbye and good day. 

Once they were outside and in the sun, Maya let out an inelegant groan. She was stiff from sitting for so long, and her back and neck popped in a few places as she slumped forward. 

"I'm sorry that got so long." She told Krieg as she straightened. "I had no idea how it was gonna go, but I'm glad it turned out the way it did." 

Krieg stopped next to her and let out a snort. "Tell the world how you shine, firefly, and let the moths burn away in the inferno."

Maya raised an eyebrow and looked up at him, hoping she could discern the meaning behind his statement if she could catch a glimpse of his expression. She couldn't, as she was standing at an angle that left nothing visible under the mask. It took her a few seconds to figure out what he meant.

"I… suppose so." 

They had a few more hours to kill while they waited for Gaige and Zer0 to get back from the outpost; the six of them were gonna rest up, and then the commander and some of the other Raiders would have some stuff for them to do. 

The agreement was that the vault hunters would work alongside the Crimson Raiders as allies, and would essentially be raiders themselves in all but name. Instead of being sent out on regular patrols, sweeps, and the like, the raiders would entrust them with any tasks they needed done that needed a more streamlined approach, or things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to spare the people for. The boys agreed without much fuss - except for Krieg, who didn’t really say much of _ anything _ \- and Zer0 had no complaints. 

The only issue Maya could think of was Gaige. Neither she, the commander, nor the other vault hunters wanted to put someone as young as her into harm’s way if they could avoid it, but as Zer0 was quick to point out, she had handled herself well enough. Maya didn’t want to treat her like some kid that couldn’t take care of herself, as she knew damn well how it felt to be on the receiving end, they just needed to figure out a balance between the two. A way to make sure she wasn’t out there on her own, but also that they weren’t smothering her. 

As to how they would go about doing that, Maya had absolutely no idea. She doubted Axton or Zer0 would have much to say about it. Salvador seemed like he might know, so perhaps it would be worth asking him. 

Maya’s train of thought was interrupted by a sudden, intense hunger gnawing at her gut. 

Krieg looked down at her and raised his eyebrow, some vague amusement in his eye. 

She coughed awkwardly into the back of her hand. “Whaddaya say we go see if we can’t find something to eat? I don’t know about you, but I haven’t eaten yet, so I’m starving.”

“Oh, hohoho! A barbecue of blood and succulent flesh! What burning, melting goodness awaits us?!” He said with a low, maniacal laugh that caught her off guard and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. 

“Heh, yeah, that’s the spirit. Glad you’re feeling better, at least.” Maya jerked her head towards one of the streets. There had to be somewhere in Sanctuary besides the bar where they could get some food. Preferably something warm. “Come on, then, big guy. Let’s see what we can find.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find it endlessly hilarious that I'm posting this chapter on the same day the chapter itself takes place on. I wish I had planned it, I really do


	19. So Shiny, So Chrome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the vault hunters to really get down to business

The Happy Pig Motel was a broken down shit hole. Maya had spent the better part of the last four hours driving through the mountains, only to find the supposed “cozy rest stop” to be abandoned, trashed, and eerily silent. 

When news got around of the agreement with the commander Roland, Dr. Blanco approached her and the others with a task he needed help with. He said something about some rival of his out to the north that had been making things difficult for the Raiders, claimed a lot of soldiers who came back from patrol near the area had unexplainable injuries he’d never seen before. The only issue, he’d explained, was that the Raiders didn’t really have much presence there, what with it being so close to the stronghold of the Bloodshot bandits giving them such a hard time, and with the Raiders trying to maintain their own territory, there weren’t a whole lot of bodies they could spare. 

Once Gaige and Zer0 made it back from the raider outpost, they got some stuff together and headed out. That guy Scooter stopped them as they passed by his garage, said he had his own little project he wanted some help with, then explained that there was a rest stop he wanted them to check out. He wouldn’t say exactly why, only that it might be worth checking. 

The only sign that anyone had been there recently was a beat up echo transmitter tied to a quark board covered in disintegrating posters and notes, and the faint sound of radio static emanating from the main building. 

As Maya and Axton climbed out of the front passenger and driver seats of the truck - they’d taken one of the larger technicals, since they were far sturdier than the ATV runners and could fit more than three people - Salvador, Gaige, and Krieg jumped out of the back. Zer0 was already out of the mounted turret and attempting to climb up the sign towering above them. 

She walked over to the board, watching as Axton tried to get the transmitter to turn on. “Is it working?”

He smacked the palm of his hand against the side of it and made a face. “Nah. Power’s out, it looks like. Gonna have to turn it back on.” He shook the transmitter once more for good measure, then set it back down and turned towards the main building.

“Think it would even be worth getting the power going?” Maya asked him. “Place has seen better days.” She turned her head to the right, her attention drawn by the sound of shoes crunching in the gravel.

Salvador stopped an arm’s length away and placed a fist on his hip, shifting his weight around as he scratched his beard and eyed the motel. “Eh, yeah, but so have most everything down here. Long as we cleaned up and kept an eye out, we could probably do something with the place.” He dropped his hand to his side. “Or the Raiders, more likely.” 

Behind them, Gaige was shouting something up at Zer0, who was crouched on top of the motel sign and flashing an XD and a LOL.

A quick search around the motel led them to an inactive pump near the backside, iced over and surrounded by trash and a few broken down cars. Axton and Salvador spent a good ten minutes or so checking the pump while Maya kept an eye out for hostiles. The guys eventually came to the conclusion that the damned thing was broken, though neither of them had any idea what was wrong or how to fix it. 

"Think that guy, ah, whatshisname, the greasy little hick, would know?" Axton said as he kicked at the ice covering a wheel at the base of the pump.

Maya walked back from where she'd been standing near the road. "Scooter? I'd imagine so, if he's Sanctuary's mechanic. I think maybe we should ask Gaige to take a look first, though, see if she can figure it out." After all, if she could design and build a robot on her own, how much more difficult could fixing a pump be?

The three of them found Gaige on top of the motel's sign, sitting next to Zer0 with her legs dangling off the side. She looked all too proud of herself as she shouted down at Krieg, who stood at the base of the sign, pointing up at them with one hand while dramatically, and rather skillfully, twirling his axe in the other. 

"Hey! The hell you guys doin' now?" Salvador called over as they approached. 

Zer0 looked down from where they sat and flashed a ;). "A friendly challenge/ Gaige would like Krieg to join us/ But can he make it?"

Maya began to ask Gaige if she could check out the pump, but was cut off by Axton, who did a little half jog to the base of the sign and exclaimed how he could _ totally _get up to the top if he wanted. What followed was a series of jeers from Gaige and Zer0, claiming with mock confidence that the men below them wouldn't be able to make it up. Both Axton and Salvador seemed to buy into the taunting, and demanded to know how they managed to make it to the top.

She thought about saying something, stopping them before they got too out of hand, but… it would be funny to watch, at the very least. Maya smiled in amusement as she watched the three men scramble to find a way onto the motel's roof, Gaige and Zer0 poking fun at them all the while. 

When they finally found their way up by climbing on top of some boxes, she decided to join them. Maya made her way over to where Salvador was attempting to scramble up onto the roof while Krieg and Axton stood and watched. After a moment or two, Krieg squatted down and offered him a hand, pulling Salvador up with little effort. 

Thankfully for Maya, she had a height advantage over Salvador and was able to pull herself up easily. 

Gaige called down to them once they were all up. How _ did _she manage to get up there? Maya could understand Zer0, since they’d climbed up all kinds of weird places since the train, but Gaige seemed much less athletically inclined than them. 

“How the hell’d you get up there, you little jabber?” Axton voiced Maya’s own thoughts, his arms crossed as he hunched forward and frowned in confusion. 

Gaige responded with a long, taunting “Figure it ooouut soldier boy!” and leaned back as she cackled. Zer0 flashed a ;p.

Salvador pointed at the two on the sign. “You used that robot of yours, didn’t you, chica!” He shouted up at them, as if accusing her of kicking a puppy. 

“I’m… not entirely sure about that. I don’t think she’d have been able to do that without us noticing.” Maya pointed out. “Anyways,” she made her way to the very edge of the roof and shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up at them. “Hey, Gaige! You think you might be able to check this pump out? Thing’s busted, but none of us have any idea how to fix it.”

Gaige’s cackling petered out into light chuckling, then she stood and looked over to where the pump was. She stared for a few seconds and considered, then looked back down to Maya and the others. “Ehhh, I’m not really sure. Seem's pretty frozen from here. I might be able to do something if I knew what’s wrong, but pumps and shit like that's not really my forte, y’know?”

Axton and Salvador both sighed and slumped as she said that. “Aw, come _ on, _I thought you were, like, a mechanic or something.” Axton said.

“Ok, yeah, I wanna _ be _ a mechanical engineer, I _ guess _ , but that doesn’t mean I’m an _ expert _ on everything, _ Axton!” _

“Alright, alright!” He threw his hands up defensively. “I’m sorry, ok? Just asking, is all.”

Maya frowned and stared at the poster boy for a moment before looking back to Gaige. “Well, that’s uh, that’s fine. We could always call and ask Scooter. He’ll probably have an idea of how to fix it.”

“Now, hold _ on _a minute, at least lemme take a look at it first before you do that.” Gaige immediately began scrambling down the side of the sign. She landed on the ground with a loud grunt and started jogging towards the pump. Maya and the others followed soon after. Zer0’s sitting form flickered and disappeared, then rematerialized to Maya’s left as she rounded a bus sitting in the parking lot. 

There was a lot of _hmm_’ing from Gaige as she circled the pump, kicking ice and snow away and climbing up the side of it as she inspected it. “Yeah, I uh, I don’t really know how to fix this thing.” She eventually called down from the top. 

Salvador said something about checking out the rest of the motel. Krieg followed him as he meandered off. 

Sighing, Maya searched her echo for the contact she made earlier for the mechanic. She had to wait a minute or two before it connected, and then another as Scooter greeted her and started asking all kinds of questions about the drive, and the weather, and the roads, and the truck, and the motel, and on and on. When he finally slowed down, Maya explained the situation with the pump and switched the call settings to show him. 

Between Maya moving her echo so he could get a look at the pump and Gaige explaining from the top of the pump what she saw, Scooter was able to give them a diagnostic. 

“So how do we fix it?” Gaige asked as she climbed back down to the ground.

“Weeeell, it’d prolly be easier to jus’ scavenge some replacement parts from the other pumps near the motel. Don’t think you’d have the tools or supplies out there to fix 'er, but there’s lotsa other pumps still chuggin’ away.” 

“Are you, uh, you sure that’s a good idea?” Maya asked. The pump at the motel supplied power, but many of the pumps they drove past on their way to the motel didn’t appear to be connected to anything. What were they out there for? “Just what are all they all out there for, anyways?”

“Aw, yeah, y’see, the motel out there is right on the edge of Bloodshot territory. They’re all mostly holed up in the old Dahl dam, and somewhere down further in the valley's the Southpaw Steam and Power. Used to be it’d supply power to everyone nearby, includin’ the dam. So all the little pumps scattered around lead down into the power plant.”

Gaige had begun looking around at the mountains and road surrounding the motel. “So where is the plant? It can’t possibly be underneath _ all _of the pumps, could it?”

“I mean, I ain’t no steam expert, and I ain’t ever been inside the plant - damn place is crawlin’ with bandits like ticks on a skag - so I couldn’t tell ya, but they prolly all connect back to the plant with like, uhhh, tunnels or pipes or some shit.”

“So it won’t be too much of an issue if we just pull parts off the pumps, then?” Maya admitted she was curious about the plant and the energy it produced, but they needed to get back to the matter at hand. 

Scooter hummed and hawed. “Yeah, should be fine. Though, uh, don’t be surprised if you find a couple of ‘em iced over. Damn bullymongs love buildin' their homes on ‘em.”

“What kinda parts are we lookin’ for, d’ya think?” Gaige seemed to be done inspecting the mountains for the time being.

“From what y’all ladies showed me, I’d say your best bet’d be, uhhh, a valve, a gearbox, and uhh, maaaaybe a capacitor oughta do it.” Scooter paused for a moment before continuing, as if he’d realized he’d forgotten something. “The valve’ll be waaaay up at tippy-top, and most prolly ain’t got ladders no more, so you're gonna have to climb yer way up like a snort-happy rid-head on a slag binge if you wanna get at it. The gearbox should be down near the bottom, shouldn’t be too hard to spot, and the capacitor’ll be in the volt casein’.” Hopefully Gaige would know what to look for better than Maya. 

“Is that all, then?”

“Should be. I ain’t really got nothin’ goin’ on right now, so, uh, if y’all got any issues or what have ya, gimme a little ring-a-ding.”

“Thanks, dude! 'Preciate it.” Gaige said. 

“Yeah, no problem, lil’ missy! Good luck out there.” And with that, Maya cut the connection.

Gaige looked back over to the pump and hmm’d. “Pretty sure if I can get the parts out, I can figure out how to put ‘em back together.”

They tracked down the guys, who had managed to get the motel’s front door open and were taking a look around the inside. Salvador and Axton were screwing around behind the front desk in what looked like the remains of a small kitchen, Krieg was feverishly digging through the rooms while mumbling to himself, and Zer0, as usual, had disappeared. 

Maya shouted for them to get ready to head out, was met with a series of distant OK’s, then went back out to the defunct board. One of the raiders had supplied her and the others with an old map of the road systems in the mountains from before they all went to shit. Many of them were too torn up to drive on anymore, and even more were left inaccessible from rock slides, avalanches, and hostile occupation, and Maya went back over it to mark it up as she waited. The quiet sound of someone climbing up the side of the board let her know that Zer0 had returned from wherever they’d been. 

Gaige finally emerged from the motel with the guys, and soon they had all gathered around the board, asking what the plan was. Maya explained the situation with the pump, then what she thought their plan of approach should be.

“We should head back down the road until we find some of the other pumps we saw earlier, since there’s gotta be at least one with the parts we need, but we’ll need to be careful.” She said, showing them the map on her echo. “I’ve also been trying to narrow down where this Mercy guy might be, so there’s a few roads that might be worth checking out.”

The others didn’t have any objections, though Salvador did have a question. “What do you have in mind for after that? If we do find that puta? If we don’t?” He asked, placing his hands on his hips.

Maya thought for a second. “If he’s not in this area-” she circled a section of the map where the roads weren’t marked off with her hand. “Then we head further into the valley and search around here-” she moved the view over to a different section that she had yet to start marking up. “And if he _ is _back the way we came, well… it depends on what we find, honestly. That sound good to you guys?” 

They nodded and muttered in agreement.

“Great!” Maya closed her map and hooked her echo back onto her belt. “Let’s get going, then.” 

* * *

The first three pumps had all been busts, with two of them iced over completely and the third rusted and falling to pieces fast. The one they sat in front of looked like the winner, and so they pulled off the road and parked while Gaige and Axton got out to grab the parts they needed. As they waited, Maya found her thoughts drifting. 

The fact that the others seemed to be ready and willing to follow through with what she said made her feel on edge. Did none of them have any better ideas? As she watched Gaige and Axton struggle to pry open the frozen volt casing of the pump, she wondered just how sound her plan was. After all, she had always been the one being ordered around, having little say in much of anything in her life up until she left Athenas. Could someone with as little experience as her really be trusted to make decisions like that? 

What if one of the others were to get hurt? There was hardly a safe space to be found in the galaxy, and Pandora was no exception, how long would it be until a plan of hers got one of them seriously injured? 

Gaige swore as she fell back into the snow, the volt casing popping open with a loud _ crack _. Axton laughed as he offered her a hand up and called her a dumbass. 

How long until Maya got one of them killed because they listened to what she thought they should do? The knife in her gut returned as she watched them climb up the side of the pump for the valve. 

She knew better than to dwell on something like that when she should be on alert, so she tried to push the thoughts and doubts down, turning her attention to the rocks and cliffs surrounding them. A few large, colorful birds flew overhead, the glare from the sun shining through their wings as it began its descent back down the sky. Zer0 had run off when they parked the truck, and as she looked around, she found the faint silhouette of them perched on top of an outcropping some few dozen meters away.

It took a few more minutes of cursing from Axton and I _ know! _’s from an exasperated Gaige for them to get what they needed. “We got the valve and the gearbox, but the capacitor on this one is totally fucked!” Gaige shouted as they made their way back, holding what Maya assumed was the valve triumphant over her head. “Everything in the volt casing was completely melted together and coated in ice, talk about a letdown.”

“Least we actually got _ something _offa this one.” Salvador said as he slid back off the roof, grunting as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

Once Zer0 returned and the others got in, Salvador drove the technical onto the road towards the next pump. The next few pumps along the road were either too broken to bother or in the process of being returned to nature, and checking them yielded expected results: the capacitors on them were all beyond salvaging. 

Eventually, they turned onto one of the roads Maya had marked for their search for the mysterious Mercy - a winding path carved into the side of one of the mountains - and soon after began to see signs of recent human occupation: deliberately placed road blocks, half-faded messages scrawled into the gray stone, and countless different footprints and tread tracks beat into the road. It didn’t take long for the road to lead off into a tunnel, the remains of the pulverized asphalt disappearing entirely only to be replaced by gravel and frozen dirt.

Salvador slowed the truck to a stop before the mouth of the tunnel. A large, crude symbol had been carved into the rock above the tunnel entrance and filled with red pigment, the same eye that the Bloodshots all had painted and tattooed onto them. Below the eye, a collection of various large bones hung down, all of them tied together with frayed rope, the words “BEG FOR MERCY” written in bold, flaking brown letters over the top.

Axton made a stumped _ huh _sound. “I dunno guys, I think we oughta check somewhere else, I don’t think our bud’s here.”

“Fuckin’ guess so.” Salvador responded as he shifted gears and began backing away. “Well, we know where he’s at, we gonna go in and turn him inside out or what?” He turned to Maya once they were out of sight of the tunnel entrance. 

Maya exhaled heavily through her nose and thought. “Well… Uh, shit. Let me think. We don’t actually know what’s in there, but the fact that it’s a cave and not out in the open makes it that much more difficult.” She stared into space as she wracked her brain, considering multiple approaches before it hit her. “Oh! Zer0!” She turned around in her seat until she was sitting on her knees facing the back.

“Yes?” They said from the turret. “Would you like me to/ Take care of our friend Mercy?/ My blade thirsts for blood.”

“I, uh, I mean, that… wasn’t what I originally had in mind, but I guess you’ve probably done stuff like this before, haven’t you. Would you be up for it? I don’t want to send you into the middle of something you can’t get out of without backup if it turns out to be a deathtrap.”

“Your concern for my/ Safety is touching, but I/ Will be quite alright. A silent blade in/ The dark, a shadow that falls/ On the unwary. I have yet to find/ A target I could not match/ This is no challenge.”

“Well… If you’re certain you’re up to it. Do you want to wait at all and make sure you’re ready, or…?”

“I’ll take care of him/ You go get the last piece, and/ I’ll meet you later.” Zer0 climbed out of the turret and jumped down to the ground, looking up to Maya with a question mark over their helmet.

Maya sat back in the seat and considered for a second, hesitant to let them go off on their own. “We’ll meet you back at the motel, then. Contact us if anything goes wrong, and let us know when you’ve finished. And remember, we’re here to find out if this Mercy guy is responsible for the weird injuries Dr. Blanco has been seeing, so keep an eye out and see if you can find anything while you’re in there, yeah?” Zer0 nodded. “Great. Good luck in there.” 

Zer0 gave her a little salute and flashed a '<', then disappeared. 

“Guess we better get back to it.” Axton climbed out of the back and plopped himself into the now empty turret. “Here’s to hoping we don’t hafta go pry their head offa spike later.”

Salvador shifted gears again as he turned the technical around and headed back to the main road. “Eh, I’m sure that wild sonofabitch’ll be fine.”

“I hope so…” Gaige said from the back, some worry slipping into her voice. 

As they continued the search for the last piece, Maya tried to put her own worry for Zer0’s safety out of her mind. They’d shown an excellent amount of skill up to that point, but she still didn’t know them that well. Her doubts from earlier bubbled back up the longer they went without hearing anything, so she told herself to have confidence in their abilities. 

It wasn’t long before they finally found a pump with a functioning capacitor to nab and were on their way back to the motel. 

By Salvador’s guess, they still had another 15 hours before it would start to get dark, which gave them plenty of time to fix the pump and get the motel in semi-defensible order. 

Maya still hadn’t heard anything back from Zer0 by the time they made it to the motel, over three hours since they left them at the tunnel; even Axton was starting to look a little worried. It wasn’t until Gaige was installing the last of the repairs that Maya heard from them. She had been in the process of helping Krieg haul broken furniture out into the parking lot when her echo crackled, effectively startling her and causing her to almost drop the moldering chairs she was carrying.

Setting the chairs down, she quickly grabbed her echo off of her belt.

“I believe I may/ Have found the source of the odd/ Wounds Zed has mentioned.” Zer0 spoke quietly. 

“Are you alright? What did you find?” Maya automatically tried to keep her own voice down, though after she said it, she realized there was likely no point. 

“I remain unharmed/ Though the same cannot be said/ For our friend Mercy. I discovered a/ Strange weapon near his body/ Some kind of laser. The ammunition/ Is unlike anything I’ve/ Seen in other guns.” There was a pause, followed by the sound of Zer0 letting out a slow, deliberate breath. “How mesmerizing/ It almost feels as if it/ Could be calling me.”

“Uhhhh… Zer0…? Are you sure you’re alright?” 

They made a surprised _ hmm? _sound, as if they’d been stirred from a stupor. “Yes.” Was their only response.

“So… are you done, then? Are you on your way back, or do you need backup? Do you need us to come and get you?”

“See you soon.” And with that, the connection cut out. 

A stack of broken and molding wood dropped to the ground on Maya’s right. She turned to the sound and saw Krieg tilting his head and looking down at her with a confused look in his eye.

“Zer0’s on their way back.”

Krieg blinked and nodded in understanding, then headed back into the motel. 

Before she rejoined him in gathering everything up, Maya went and told the others; Gaige was climbing down the pump, while Axton and Salvador were going through the discarded furniture, and whatever else they found around the lot, for salvageable material to fortify the outside of the motel. 

She didn’t like the thought of letting Zer0 trek back on their own, but if they were so adamant, she’d just have to trust them to figure it out for themselves. For all she knew, they’d enjoy the hike back down to the valley. Or maybe they’d find some sort of vehicle to take back? Maya had only her own speculation, so she resigned herself to waiting for them to arrive and got back to work. 

* * *

Zer0 returned some three hours later on a blood-spattered motorbike. They called Maya and the others to let them all know that they were almost back, and a few minutes later the bike rumbled in off the road. It must have belonged to whoever occupied the cave, if the crude metal spikes and armor welded to the sides and looping red designs were any indication. Some dust and mud clung to Zer0’s legs, and a splash of blood went across their arms and torso, but otherwise they seemed no worse for wear. 

Axton whistled low as the vault hunters gathered and watched Zer0 climb off the bike. “Damn, dude, the hell happened to you?” 

Zer0 kicked the bike’s stand out and left it sitting by the motel sign, pulling a satchel that had been slung across their back off over their head. “A most exciting/ Turn of events. I’m sorry/ You had to miss it.” They displayed a little :( over their helmet. “But I took care of/ That pesky doctor Mercy/ And found his secret.” The sad face was replaced with a ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .

From the satchel, Zer0 pulled a rather hefty gun - colored black with strange, glowing purple lines spiderwebbing across it like cracks - with an enormous ammo casing on one side. Gaige, Axton, and Salvador crowded Zer0 to get a better look at it, and after a moment Maya joined them. Krieg stayed back and grumbled.

It was Gaige’s turn to whistle. “Shit, man, think doctor Whatshisface was overcompensating a bit?” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” Salvador mumbled. “You could probably kill someone with that thing even _ without _firing it, damn thing looks like it weighs more than the moon.” 

What was up with that gun? Just by looking at it, Maya felt there was something off about it, like it had its own presence. Was it possible for a gun to feel like that? Maya felt as if she were seeing a new person, except it felt _ off. _

“It is a very/ Strange weapon. I’ve never seen/ Anything like it.”

Maya tentatively held out a hand to brush her fingertips along the side. “I wonder what’s making it glow…”

Axton stopped eyeing the gun and turned to give her an incredulous look. Salvador and Gaige glanced at her with a similar look, but went back to focusing on the gun. “What in the hell’re you talking about?” Axton asked.

Pulling her hand away, Maya scrunched her face up in confusion. “The purple on it, I wonder why the purple is glowing.”

“...It’s not glowing, I dunno what _ you’re _on.” 

“What? Yeah, it is.”

“Uh, Maya,” Salvador interjected. “It’s not glowing. It’s just dull purple.”

“Yeah, I agree with Sally.” Gaige added.

Maya rolled her eyes. “Oh, come _ on, _don’t screw with me like this, guys.”

“Maybe it’s just the light?” Axton suggested.

A few dots had appeared over Zer0’s helmet while they bickered. “The glow. The bright glow/ Is it not beautiful? Does/ It not captivate?” 

The four of them stopped and looked back to Zer0, all of them becoming increasingly confused.

“Not you too, dude.” Axton sounded exasperated. “It’s just a _ gun, _guys, why does it matter if it looks shiny in the light?”

“It is not the light/ Even in the dark, it glows/ It’s not natural.”

“Sooooo that dude has just been killing people with a glow-in-the-dark gun?” Gaige asked. 

Salvador sighed and shook his head. “I still don’t think it’s glowing.”

How could they not see it? Maybe it _ was _just the light playing off the paint, but with what Zer0 said, she wasn’t so sure; she didn’t want to cause a full-on argument between them over whether or not the paint on a gun, of all things, was glowing or not. 

Maya looked over her shoulder to where Krieg was still standing, holding a hand up to shield his eye as he watched the sky. “Hey, Krieg?” He lowered his hand and tore his eye down from the clouds. “Come check this gun out, tell us what it looks like to you.” Maya wasn’t sure what having him look at it would accomplish, but it wouldn’t hurt to get another opinion and settle the debate.

The vault hunters moved out the way to let Krieg through. He was about two meters from Zer0 when he focused on the gun and visibly hesitated, stopping in his tracks. Standing on his right side, Maya couldn’t see the exposed portion of his face, but the longer he stared down at the weapon, the more agitated he got. Within seconds, he was vigorously shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Both Gaige and Salvador gave him concerned looks. “Hey, Krieg, buddy, you doin’ alright?” Gaige asked.

“Yeah, hermano, you need to take a break or somethin’?”

Zer0 flashed a question mark and held the gun up a little higher. As soon as they did that, Krieg recoiled with a shout, tripping over his feet as he stumbled backwards and fell on his ass.

“No! No! No, nonononono, not the pure purple! I don’t wanna see it again!” He shouted, sounding terrified. Krieg shuffled back a little more as he kept shouting. When he got his hands underneath him, he pushed himself up and stumbled along as he turned and ran towards the pump.

Maya and the others all shouted after him, and she was about to follow when Salvador took off after him, yelling over his shoulder for her and the others to stay put. She looked helplessly to the others, who were just as confused. Gaige looked particularly distressed, and made a frustrated whining noise before saying something that sounded like “fuck it” before running after them. 

The three of them were quiet for several moments as they listened to Salvador shout after Krieg, and the ensuing sound of Krieg’s nonsensical yelling fading the further away he got.

When the shouting faded to distant echoes, Axton dropped his face into his hands and groaned. Maya crossed her arms and exhaled heavily. 

“Well… _ shit _.” Was all she could say. She glanced back at Zer0, who had put the gun back into the satchel. Their head was turned up to the sky. 

“He saw it, too.”

“What do you mean?” Maya asked.

Zer0 quickly looked back to her, an exclamation point flashing briefly. “It’s… nothing. It is/ Not important right now. We/ Should be more worried/ About finding Krieg, and if/ He’s alright or not.”

“Yeah… Gaige and Sal have already gone after him, so I’m sure they’ll be able to find and bring him back. In the meantime, I think we ought to call Dr. Blanco and let him know you took care of… um…” Maya blanked and forgot the name of the man they’d been sent to find. “That guy.”

Zer0 nodded slowly. “We should go inside/ And find someplace to sit and/ Rest while we call him.”

When Maya turned to head into the motel, Axton was gone. She glanced around as she walked and saw him meandering over to the pump.

They took a seat at the only remaining table in the dining area of the motel. Maya dropped herself into a metal folding chair with a sigh, the joints complaining loudly as she shed her jacket and leaned to the side to pull her echo from her belt. 

It was several minutes before Dr. Blanco was able to answer the call. He apologized when he did, stating he’d been stitching up the leg of a raider that got a little too close to a horned skag. Maya began by explaining how they’d found the entrance to the tunnel and sent Zer0 in, then they gave their account of how what they found in the cave - a small shanty town occupied by a decently sized group of Bloodshot bandits - and how they snuck through the compound until they found the target. They waited until the target - Mercy - was alone and isolated before taking him out and hiding his body, then searched him and his living space until they found the gun, as well as an echo cartridge they produced from one of the pockets on their suit.

Dr. Blanco asked Zer0 if they were certain that was what was responsible for the weird injuries, and they confirmed, stating that they deliberately let themselves be discovered in order to have an excuse to fire it on the bandits as they got away. 

_ That would explain the blood on them _, Maya observed. 

“I’m gonna take a guess and say this ain’t no run-of-the-mill kinda gun, is it.” Dr. Blanco said. “You mind lettin’ me get a look at ‘er?”

Zer0 pulled the gun from the satchel and set it in the middle of the table. Maya switched the settings on her echo and moved so he would be able to look at it. 

There was a long stretch of silence as the doctor inspected it, broken only when he let out a short “aha!” followed by the sound of a hand hitting a palm. “Wouldja mind firin’ it at the wall over there a few times?” 

Zer0 picked the gun up and shot the far wall, then set it back down. It made a strange sound as it did, and a few bright blobs of _ something _were sent flying out, leaving scorching, oozing holes in the tile.

“I’ll be damned! That’s E-tech!”

“E-tech? What’s that?” Maya asked. Zer0 flashed a series of question marks.

“I dunno the specifics of it all, but from what I’ve heard, E-tech is supposedly some kind weird as hell experimental shit some of the corporations make.” He explained. “I used to know a guy that used to work for Maliwan back in the day. When Roland and the other hunters opened the vault a few years back and all the eridium started croppin’ up all over the damn place, Hyperion used it to make experimental weapons and such, among all the other shit they used it for. All th’ other weapon manufacturers - well, ‘cept for Jakobs, I think - licensed E-tech from Hyperion for their own little experimental toys. Guess that explains how Hyperion got so rich. One of the ways they got rich, anyways.”

Maya and Zer0 looked at each other once he mentioned eridium, both of them seemingly having the same idea.

“Uhhh, you two still there? Hello?”

“Sorry, it’s just, uh… it’s eridium tech, huh?”

Yep. Looks like that gun uses eridium to turn bullets into… stuff that ain't bullets. Energy, and stuff. God _ damn _, eridium is weird.” He paused for a second. “Why, what’s on y’all’s minds?”

Zer0 leaned forward and set their head in the palm of a hand. “Tell me, doctor, does/ This gun look strange to you? None/ Of us can agree.”

He made a long _ ehhhh _sound. “I mean, aside from how chunky it is, not really. It’s got that faint glow eridium gives off, though, if that’s what yer askin’.”

“So _ you _can see it, but not the others?” Maya slapped her palm against the tabletop. “I swear, they had to be fucking with us.”

“Whaddaya mean?”

“I mean, both Zer0 and I agree that the purple on the gun-” Maya reached forward to point a finger at the spots on it. “-has a weird bright glow to it, but the others _ swear _it’s not.”

“Well, that’s…” Dr. Blanco trailed off and considered her words. “That’s not entirely surprising for _ you, _ Miss Maya. Sirens like yourself seem to have some kinda _ connection, _if you will, to eridium. Eridium, in its purest form, has a weird glow to it, ain’t no one gonna deny that, but it diminishes the less pure it is. But, ah, somethin’ I’ve noticed over the years, is that the more someone’s around eridium, the easier it is to see the glow, if you catch my drift.”

“…So the others can’t see it because they’ve never been exposed to it, or haven’t been exposed enough?”

“Yeah, somethin’ to that extent. I can kinda see it because I’ve been dealin’ with it for the last few years, and a lotta the other raiders have, too.”

“But I’ve never been around eridium before, so you really think my siren heritage is why? How do you know sirens have a connection to eridium?” Was there something he wasn’t telling her?

“Miss Tannis, the scientist shut-in that studies Eridian shit? That’s one of her theories. Well, it's not really a _ theory, _ but… I’m not gonna give you another history lesson, but the vault five years ago was opened by a woman named Steele. 'Course, the thing _inside _the vault killed her, so she's not exactly around no more, but she led part of the Atlas goons out here back then, and she was a siren. She was able to put the vault key together and use it to unlock the vault. Tannis is usually pretty good when it comes to this stuff, so if she’s confident in her conclusions, then she’s probably right.”

“What about me? As/ Far as I know, I’ve never/ Had contact with it.”

Dr. Blanco _ hmm _’d for a moment. “Couldn’t tell ya, honestly. Like I said, eridium is weird. Coulda been you’ve been in contact with it before without realizing it, ‘specially in your, ah, your particular line of work.”

Maya stared at the gun on the table. “Krieg could see it.”

“Beg your pardon, Miss Maya?”

“Krieg. When he saw the gun, he freaked out. He said, um… said something about “pure purple” and that he didn’t want to see it again, then he, ah, he… ran off.”

Blanco sighed. “Yeah, I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that. Poor bastard. It’s a friggin’ miracle he’s doin’ as well as he is. I wouldn’t put it past Hyperion to use pure eridium in their animal experiments - or, erm, human, in his case - but even the slag can have the same effect as regular eridium, when it comes to this kinda stuff.” Zer0 displayed a sad face. “But anyways, you said he ran off? Did ya find him?” 

Maya leaned over to pick her jacket back up and set it on her lap. “Sal and Gaige went after him.”

“Ah. He’ll probably be fine, then. Salvador’ll take care of him. He’s good for that. But you make sure you let me know how he’s feelin’ when they get back, ya hear? If he’s havin’ issues, I wanna know. Can’t go lettin’ him deal with that shit on his own, it ain’t good for ya.”

“Oh, yeah, you bet. But, what do you suggest we do with the gun? Is there someone else in the Raiders who might be interested in it?”

“Oh, now let me think… I know Miss Tannis would probably like to take a look at it, see if she can’t learn a thing or two from it, but beyond that, you could probably just keep it. Damn thing’d prolly end up bein’ pretty useful.”

“Well, yeah, but if it’s gonna bother Krieg…” 

“I think we should bring/ It to Tannis. I also/ Would like to meet her.”

“It’s your decision to make, but that sounds about as good as any.” Dr. Blanco said. “Now, I think Scooter’s been dyin’ to know if you’ve got that pump fixed yet, might wanna give him a call, tell him what’s up.”

Right, the pump. It had taken Gaige nearly an hour to get it fixed. She’d had to fix a few more things with the wiring after that to get the power to actually flow to the motel, but she managed to get the lights back on, along with the heating. Scooter would be happy to hear that, she hoped. “Yeah, Gaige did a damn good job getting it working again. I suppose the rest of the raiders will be happy, as well, if th-”

Maya startled as she was cut off by the loud static of the call being interrupted as someone else joined the frequency. 

“…ault hunters, do you copy? Come in, vault hunters.” Maya recognized the voice as Davies, the raider in command of the outpost down at the old bandit camp.

She stood up straight. “Yes, this is Maya, I read you.”

“I will not waste your time nor mine," she sounded like she was in a hurry. "So I’ll get right to the point: Commander Roland has been captured by the Bloodshots.”

“What!?” Maya shouted. How the hell could he have been captured?

“If you would let me finish! The commander has been captured by the Bloodshots, yes. He was ambushed and apprehended while out on a recon mission somewhere to the southeast of your current location. I will admit that I am _ very _ suspicious that he just _happened_ to be captured less than a day after letting you vault hunters in without much screening, but as it is, the likelihood of you being behind this is admittedly low, and the commander trusted you. That being said, we don’t know where it is he is being kept yet, and we have dispatched as many soldiers as we can spare to search. Now, seeing as you and the other vault hunters are already out in the field, we need you to head to Frostburn Canyon. We have reason to believe that the canyon is where we’ll be able to find some clue as to where the commander is being kept.”

Shit. Shit, that was bad. Maya was just starting to think that maybe she had made the right decision by coming to Pandora after all, but for _ this, _of all things, to happen? By the stars, maybe she really wasn’t cut out for vault hunting.

No. Maya frowned and mentally kicked herself. How would she get anywhere in life if she kept doubting herself like that? She was determined to make it work and find what she came to Pandora for, or die trying. 

“Alright.” She said to Davies. “But I don’t know where the canyon is. Can you provide coordinates, or directions?”

“Certainly.” 

A moment later, Maya’s echo _ pinged _as she received a map file from one Martha Davies.

“What is it we’re looking for? Anything in particular, or just information?”

“There is an unidentified contact in Frostburn you should seek out, but watch yourself; the cult of the Firehawk live in the canyon, and they can be unpredictable around anyone not in their cult. Don’t do anything to provoke them if you can help it, and report back immediately once you find something.”

The connection cut out.

Zer0 stood and worked on putting the E-tech gun back in the satchel, displaying a :( as they did. Maya put her coat back on and left the motel. She walked to the technical, now parked in front of the pump, and found Axton sitting on the hood and looking at his echo.

“Have the others come back yet?” She asked him.

Axton glanced at her, then back to his echo. “No, but Sally called and said they’re on their way.”

“Where at? We need to leave.”

He did a double take and looked back at her. “What? Why?”

“New orders. Commander Roland’s been captured, and we’ve been ordered to head somewhere to help search for him.”

“Ohh, shit.” Axton muttered under his breath, his eyes going wide as he closed his echo and scrambled down. “They should be somewhere on the road.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and started it up. Maya climbed into the front passenger seat, and Zer0 got into the turret. “We’ll go grab them, then you gotta direct me to where we need to go, yeah?”

“Sounds great.” Maya opened up her echo to look at the attachment sent to her.

The others weren’t far, about a hundred or so meters further down the road and around a rocky outcropping. Salvador was walking ahead of Krieg, who had a very enthusiastic Gaige sitting on his shoulders. She lit up and started waving when they saw the technical approaching, but sobered once Maya told them what was going on. They climbed in the back, and Axton turned around as per Maya’s instructions.

Connecting via echo so they could hear each other over the wind, Gaige and Salvador told her what happened once they caught up to Krieg, but she could tell they were leaving some of the details out. That was fine, though; if there was something that happened to him that they’d prefer not to discuss with the rest of them, she wouldn’t pry it out of them. All that mattered was that they were all still in once piece.

She could faintly hear Gaige calling up Scooter to tell him about the pump, and for a while Maya listened to her chatter to the mechanic. She eventually called Dr. Blanco back to tell him they’d found Krieg, and what had happened earlier when the call was cut.

When that was over, Maya hugged her torso and shivered, then zipped her jacket and pulled the hood up. 

Frostburn Canyon, huh? And here she thought she’d finally get a chance to warm up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got a new laptop, yay! That means I can finally stop writing everything on my phone lmao
> 
> Also. I had to do a bunch of research on asexuality to make sure I didn't fuck up my portrayals of Maya and Krieg, and ended up being ace myself. Go figure!


	20. Seek The Firehawk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang goes to Frostburn Canyon to find this mysterious Raider contact

Krieg woke with a start. A stabbing pain in his left arm had roused him from the fitful slumber he’d fallen into, and as he pushed himself into a seated position and frantically looked around, he saw it was only Gaige. She had a concerned look on her face, and her robotic hand was resting on his shoulder. 

It took him a moment to remember how he came to be in the back of a technical, the other guy looking up at the mountains around them. 

Right. That’s right. He and the others were helping the mechanic - what was his name? Scooter? - get that rest stop up and running again, as well as helping Sanctuary’s doctor take down some bandit. Zer0 had killed the bandit and found what he was using against the Crimson Raiders, but when they presented it to him and the vault hunters… 

A heady wave of fear and distress hit him as he remembered the gun, the fire under his skin smothered by the cold that went down his spine, his stomach lurching and making him want to vomit. 

The veins of eridium that ran through it had screamed and hissed at him, or maybe it was the ghosts in his head. Maybe it was both. Either way, it made the scarring on his right arm ache, made his right eye burn until the pain in his skull grew and became a splitting migraine. 

Running was the only thing he _ could _do. The other guy didn’t dare get any closer than he had to, no matter how much he might have wanted to break the damned thing, to grab it out of Zer0’s hands and smash it until there was nothing left. He ran blindly until his breathing turned from wheezing into heavy sobs, gasping for air as he stumbled along until he lost his footing and fell to his hands and knees. 

He wasn’t sure why they had to get back onto the road so quickly, since he wasn’t entirely present enough to catch all of what the others had discussed, but apparently it was important enough to warrant Axton speeding down the road like his life depended on it. The other guy had curled up in a corner of the truck bed when they got in, and it didn’t take long for him to pass out.

Gaige pulled away once she was sure he was awake, then said something he didn't catch as she sat back in her spot near the tailgate. 

While the other guy reached a hand up under his mask and rubbed his eyes, Krieg tried to remember what it was he’d dreamed about. He almost didn’t even bother, but something was itching at the back of his mind, a vague feeling lingering when it should’ve already dissolved.

He managed to grasp a snippet of his dream; there was the feeling of being suspended by something he couldn’t perceive, surrounded on all sides by an oppressive presence. Was that it? Maybe it was a feeling of being surrounded by _ nothing. _He couldn’t tell. Beyond that, all he could recall was a series of flashes, faint images of a looming, shapeless form that seemed to shift and change, and countless bright blue eyes all training on him. 

What was that? Krieg tried to remember more, but the details blurred together into mush. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel like something he ought to be seeing, nor did it feel like just another ghost conjured by his errant imagination. 

The other guy leaned his right arm over the edge of the truck bed and watched the scenery go by, mumbling something under his breath about the eyes from their dream. 

Krieg had to agree with him, there was something about those eyes that left both him and the other guy with an intense feeling of dread building in his chest. It was like they were watching him, like they had recognized him. The feeling that he was being watched by them hadn’t disappeared now that he was awake, and left him anxiously looking around. The other guy drummed his fingers on the technical, and Krieg hoped that he was just being jumpy, that the paranoia would fade. 

How long had he been asleep, anyways? The other guy pulled his echo off his belt. He’d only been out for about a half hour. 

As he put the echo back, Salvador said something to Zer0 up in the turret, then they shimmied down into the bed. The two of them pulled a canopy - a thick, leathery tarp pulled over a thin, metal framework - away from the back of the cabin. Zer0 climbed back over to the turret once the canopy was halfway out, and Krieg took their place in helping Salvador lock it into place. Once it was secured, Krieg had to either hunch forward or lean back if he didn’t want his head cricked at an uncomfortable angle. 

From what he could guess, they were driving back the way they came from Sanctuary. Axton drove for a few hours until they got to the divide, then stopped on the side of the road so they could all get out and stretch their legs. Salvador took his place in the driver’s seat when their break was over, and Krieg decided to take Zer0’s place in the turret so he would have something to do besides fidget with his axe. Gaige got into the front passenger seat, and the rest got into the back. 

They eventually reached a Y split in the road, and instead of turning left to return to Sanctuary, they kept going forward. Krieg recognized that the direction they were going in would eventually take them to the field of bones he and the raiders found the dead man and the power cores in, but Salvador turned left onto a smaller, icy side road before they made it that far. 

The road zigzagged between the rocks until they came to a bridge spanning a wide chasm. On the other side, it leveled out and stopped at a walled encampment built in a wide, open area on the edge of a cliff. The encampment was in the shadow of a snowy peak to the left, while the cliff dropped off to the right, and Krieg could see the Marrowfields stretching out below on the other side of the chasm. Ahead of him, he could see a sliver of the distant ocean sparkling in between the mountaintops.

A shiver ran down his spine in the wind as Salvador brought the technical to a stop on the other side of the bridge. They were pretty high up at that point, and in the sudden open space, the wind stung more than it had below. The other guy huffed as he tried to fan the fire under his skin back up to a blaze.

_ Looks like it’s gonna start getting dark soon. I hope we can find some shelter from the wind, otherwise we’re in for one cold night. _

The other guy leaned forward on the barrel of the turret and crossed his arms.

Krieg’s echo crackled as he and the vault hunters were connected to Maya’s, who was calling someone. The person who eventually answered was a gruff woman. Maya explained that they had followed some directions and reached wherever it was they were. 

The woman on the other end explained that they were on the border of Crimson Raider territory, and beyond the encampment in front of them lay the territory of a group called the Children of the Firehawk. She explained that they were a cult that worshipped some mysterious figure fixated on fire that called themself, believe it or not, the _ Firehawk. _The other guy sat up a little when he heard that and smirked.

She went on to explain that the cult had an uneasy peace with the Raiders on account of them both being bitter enemies with the Bloodshots, and that as long as the vault hunters didn’t try to provoke them, they would be able to pass through the gates into Frostburn Canyon. The goal was to find an undercover informant among the ranks of the Children, but the Raider woman had no idea who they were or where. 

Once the Raider hung up, Salvador slowly drove the technical up to the gate of the encampment, where they were approached by two people, both covered in ash and scorch marks. One had a fresh gash down the side of his face - one of his eyes had swelled shut and blood was dripping down his neck and staining his jacket, which had another large dark spot seeping blood near his midsection - and the other favored an arm wrapped in torn fabric. The cultist with the bloody face held up a hand to motion them to halt, then went to the driver’s side. A gun was casually slung over his shoulder, but from the turret, Krieg could see he kept a finger on the trigger.

He looked past the cultists, and through the gate he could see other cultists in similar conditions; many were sitting or laying on the ground, some of them injured and being attended to by other cultists, some of them still and unmoving. There was also a pile of bodies in the center of the encampment, but all of the people in it who weren’t severely burned appeared to be wearing the bright red markings of the Bloodshot bandits.

“The fuck do you want?” The bloody cultist asked.

Salvador twisted in the seat. “We’re here to help, my friend.” There was a small pause before he spoke, like he had seen the devastation behind the two gatekeepers.

The bloody cultist eyed Salvador, then Krieg, then looked along the length of the technical. “There more of you in the back?”

“Three. There’s six of us all together.”

The cultist went to one of the windows in the cover over the back and peered in, the went back to Salvador. “Where you comin’ from? Sanctuary? You don’t look like Bloodshots.”

“That’s right.”

The bloody cultist looked over to the second gatekeeper for a moment, then back to the technical. “The Bloodshot skaglickers pushed their way in not long ago. You can park your rig over there-” he pointed to a covered area to the left of the gate. “-But I need someone to head down into the canyon and let Incinerator Clayton know what happened up here.”

“Sounds good.” Salvador switched gears and drove the technical into a large, makeshift garage occupied by several small motorbikes. When it was parked, Krieg pulled himself out of the turret and followed the vault hunters back to the gate. 

The bloody cultist led them through the encampment towards a massive cave opening in the peak. What looked like the skull plate of a massive spiderant hung from several large chains. A jaw hung beneath that, and in the jaw hung a massive tattered and burned reddish banner with a round symbol of a bird in the center. He spoke to them as they walked.

“Normally I’d have sent one of our own in already, but after the last wave of Bloodshots, we’ve barely got enough people up to keep this place secure. We’ve still got enough supplies, but I’m gonna need you to tell the Incinerator we need more people up top, if they haven’t all been killed.”

“Why did the Bloodshots attack?” Maya asked.

“I dunno. They’ve always had somethin’ against the Firehawk, but they’ve never hit us this hard before.”

He stopped at the mouth of the tunnel and bid them good luck, then started back towards the gate. 

The tunnel was long and winding, leading them down and down into the mountain. The walls were lined with all kinds of scribblings and murals - simple designs, fire, and a couple dozen portraits of various people haloed by flame - illuminated by torches and hanging lanterns set at regular intervals down the entire length of the tunnel.

When they reached the end, Krieg was momentarily blinded as they turned a corner and stepped out into the daylight.

The rocks in front of them stretched up high, forming a path that led them to a wide open space on the bank of a frozen pond. On the far side of the pond, a waterfall was completely frozen into a wall of solid ice. The path branched off to the left and right, with the left leading up a slope, and the right leading towards a ramshackle hut in the distance. A large group of people were gathered in front of the hut, so the vault hunters headed down the right path.

The other guy pulled his axe from his storage and held it down at his side.

As they got closer, Krieg saw that the hut was situated on top of a cliff, with the one side plunging down the side of the mountain, the second blocked by a rock outcropping, and the third hanging over the rest of the canyon. The path split again as they neared closer, with the right side leading down to the canyon floor.

The group of cultists were all gathered around a blazing bonfire in the clearing in front of the hut. A man in a complicated flaming getup stood on the porch of the hut as he addressed them, a broken buzz-axe mounted on the end of a metal pipe in one hand. He spoke with a feverish energy that was met with screaming and wailing from the crowd when he mentioned the invading Bloodshots. The staff in the man’s hand swung wildly as he beseeched them to hunt down the bandits seeking to deface the Firehawk’s sanctum, as he put it. 

It went on for another moment before the man eventually dismissed them, and the crowd quickly dispersed as the cultists rushed down the path to the canyon floor. 

The other guy hung back as the vault hunters - minus Zer0, who had disappeared the second they exited the tunnel - approached the man. 

“You!” He pointed the staff towards them. “You are not Bloodshots, but neither are you part of our flaming Mother’s brood! Who are you, and why have you come here at this most unprecedented hour?”

The other guy stopped in his tracks when he heard the man speak and screwed his face up in surprise and confusion. If Krieg had to guess, it was probably because of his mention of a “flaming mother”. What he _ didn’t _understand was why his breath quickened and his pulse sped up as he continued to stare holes into the man. The fire under his skin flared and chased away the chill that had been seeping into him. 

“We’re here to help.” Salvador repeated what he told the gatekeeper.

“That’s right.” Maya moved to stand next to Salvador. “The guys at the gate wanted us to tell you that they need reinforcements if they’re gonna continue to hold the place down.”

The man perked up at that. He straightened and slammed the butt of the staff against the frozen ground. “Aha! I had begun to worry that none of our brothers and sisters at the gate were left, we have not heard anything from them since the attack began. But that still does not answer my question: who are you? What is your reason for being here?” He pointed the axe end of the staff towards Maya, then swung it around in an arc to gesture to the rest of them. 

From where Krieg stood, Maya seemed unbothered by the man. “We’re from Sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary!” The man shouted, sounding incredulous. “So, you wish to leave those blasphemers and seek the warm embrace of our Mother, the Firehawk? You would not be the first!”

Gaige and Axton elbowed and glanced at each other, then to Krieg. 

“I- we- y- yeah… Yes! Yes, we came to seek the Firehawk.”

To Krieg’s amazement, the man didn’t seem to notice how Maya stumbled over her words. There was vehemence in his voice, and though he hid his face behind a mask, Krieg would be willing to bet that it was twisted and wide-eyed with that same energy. He was fanatical.

_ This must be that Incinerator Clayton dude the guard mentioned. _

The other guy grunted and readjusted his grip on his axe, narrowing his eyes and cracking his neck as he watched Clayton. 

“And seek our Mother you shall! But first, we must drive these _ heathens _ from our sacred mountain!” Clayton cried, stamping the staff on the ground several times. “Go! Aid our brothers and sisters in removing the Bloodshots, _ prove _that you have what it takes to walk the path to the Firehawk’s nest and receive Her blessing.”

Maya hoisted her gun from its holster and held it at the ready. “Just tell us where we need to go.”

Clayton pointed his staff towards the path the other cultists had run down when they arrived. “Follow the road through Ashmouth. The heathens will need to go through the Blacktoe Cavern to reach the path to our Mother. Run fast, outsiders, and may your flames burn bright!” He slammed the staff down once more.

Krieg followed the vault hunters as they picked their way down the path. It was slippery in a few places where the ice hadn’t been worn away or melted, but there were metal steps embedded in the ground to make it easier. 

As they descended, the others all began asking Maya why she chose not to tell Clayton why they were really there.

“Because,” she looked over her shoulder at them. “As far as we know, no one else knows the commander is gone. Davies said that these guys aren’t exactly enemies with the Raiders, but that doesn’t mean we can trust them. We have no idea if they know there’s a Raider among them or not.”

“You made a good call. I’ve never met a cult that wasn’t made of paranoid bastards, it’s best if we keep that shit to ourselves.” Salvador told her. Axton agreed with him.

On the canyon floor, a small town had been built in and around the cliffs, the the buildings being made from what looked like salvage, stone and clay. Judging by the walkways and holes lining the higher parts of the town, he guessed that they had also tunneled into the cliffs themselves. The path split about halfway down, with one half leading to the very bottom, and the other leading to a raised portion of the town situated on a low cliff.

He saw very few people as they passed through the center of the town; mostly children, a few elders, and some other stragglers. They all watched Krieg and the vault hunters as they went by, stopping whatever they were doing to silently eye them. 

The sounds of distant shouting and gunfire could be heard from the far side of the town. A loud explosion from higher up the mountain followed by screaming caught their attention, and the other guy looked up to try and find its source. As he scanned the mountainside, he could see a plume of smoke rising from a section of the town on the very top of the cliff to his right.

_ That’s not a good sign. _

When they reached the far side of the town, they found another cave sloping up into the mountain. Several bodies and a good deal of blood trailed off into the mouth of the cave. The other guy muttered under his breath, the fire flaring a little more as he began to anticipate what was waiting for them inside.

In front of him, Gaige’s robotic arm lit up like she was getting ready to digistruct her robot. Instead, she readied the pistol she’d been given when Claptrap found them. Frowning, the other guy quickened his pace and stepped in front of her, putting his braced hand on her shoulder and pushing her to the back of the group. Gaige protested, but didn’t try to push back ahead of him. 

The cave took them through a low tunnel before widening out into a large cavern filled with more shacks surrounding a large fire in the center. The cultists that had been gathered in front of Clayton when they arrived were scrambling around the cavern, rushing between buildings and shouting at each other. There had to be around 40 or so total, by Krieg’s guess, and it looked like they were gathering up weapons, ammo, and whatever other gear they had hidden around. A dozen or two bodies, both cultist and Bloodshot, had been dragged into a corner, leaving trails and splatters of blood along the cave floor. 

Several of the cultists hurried up a staircase at the back of the cavern as they finished gathering their gear. They followed the cultists to the stairway, and the other guy looked around nervously at all the people around him as they went through the crowd. Most of them didn't seem to notice the vault hunters, but those who did eyed them with suspicion. One in particular stopped them near the base of the stairs and demanded to know who they were and what they were doing there. Maya gave the cultist the same explanation she'd given Clayton, as well as what Clayton had told them, and the cultist considered her words for moment before moving aside to let them all pass.

The stairs led them back out to a long winding path snaking its way up the side of the mountain. Partway up, they were stopped by at least a dozen or more Bloodshots who had blocked the path with fallen rocks, and were kneeling behind them and shooting at anyone they saw. The cultists took shelter behind what cover they could find.

Krieg’s eyes went wide as the other guy finally saw an opportunity to use his axe, but was stopped by Salvador grabbing his arm and pulling him back behind cover before the Bloodshots could get a shot in him.

“The fuck you doing? Keep your head down!” He shouted over the gunfire. 

The other guy whined. “Ngh, a knife down the belly spills the snaking salvation!”

Salvador leaned against the rocky wall and held his gun up at the ready. “Yeah, I get you, but if we rush in now, we’ll get shot to shit.” He leaned around the corner and fired off a shot. A quick series of shots pelted the ground about an arm’s width away from him. 

With a frustrated growl, the other guy relented and stayed back behind cover. 

As the cultists exchanged shots with the Bloodshots, Krieg heard Maya shouting to Gaige, asking if she could send Deathtrap out while she distracted the bandits. Turning his head, he saw Deathtrap begin to digistruct next to Gaige. 

When he was done, Maya and Gaige moved to where Salvador was and switched places with him. Maya peaked around the corner a few times. After the third time, she stepped out from behind the corner as she raised her left arm.

Krieg couldn’t see what she was doing, but he heard all the Bloodshots open fire a moment later, followed by a faint tinkling sound and that sick pulling feeling he got when Maya used her phaselock. As she did that, Gaige moved her robotic hand and Deathtrap went up over the rocks. A few screams followed and some of the gunfire died. The other guy was pacing at that point, and his curiosity and impatience was getting the better of him.

Slinging his axe through his harness, Krieg grabbed onto the rock wall and hoisted himself up until he could see the path where the Bloodshots were. Behind the barricade, Deathtrap was swiping at the bandits in between dodging their hits. In front of the barricade was Maya’s phaselock sphere, and inside of the sphere was a massive ball of bullets that continued to grow as the Bloodshots shot at her. 

After another three or four seconds, the sphere moved closer to the Bloodshots. Maya dove back behind the rock corner and yelled at everyone to get down. Krieg barely got his head down in time as the sphere flickered and disappeared. At the same time the sick feeling in his gut disappeared, there was a series of loud _ thuds _and screams, and a wave of bullets flew overhead and past the corner, followed by relative silence.

When everyone calmed down and stepped out from behind cover, there were bullets embedded all around them; in the rocks, in the dirt, and in the Bloodshots who now lay dead behind the barricade.

Well, except for one. 

The other guy was quick to act, vaulting over the rocks blocking the path as he came up on the last bandit struggling to crawl away through the trampled snow. He placed a boot on his back and pinned him to the ground, then pulled the shotgun he took from the bandit a few days prior out of the holster on his back and turned his head into a clumpy, red splatter of mush. 

Behind him, there was shouting. He turned around to see a handful of the cultists demanding to know who the vault hunters were and what they were doing there, as well as demanding to know how Maya did her cool bullet trick. A few other cultists ran past him to chase after the Bloodshots, but none of them paid Krieg any mind. 

The other guy holstered the shotgun and watched as the vault hunters tried to placate and reassure the cultists. They calmed down when Salvador mentioned what Clayton told them, but still looked suspicious as they watched the vault hunters continue up the path.

The rest of the path up the mountain was riddled with traps and roadblocks set by the invading bandits. Krieg couldn’t help but notice that there was very little resistance, as the only other bandits they came across were either alone or in pairs. The others vocalized his suspicion at the lack of Bloodshots guarding the path, but there wasn’t much they could do about it except press on. 

When the path evened out, they rounded a corner to find another cluster of large buildings surrounding a massive fire pit in front of the mouth of a large alcove carved into the mountain. 

The cultists were all gathering in front of the alcove, bickering amongst each other about whether or not they should go inside. The ones who noticed the vault hunters making their way to the alcove - and as Krieg got closer, he could see there was a giant bleached skull set into the alcove, the mouth of which was open to allow passage through it into another tunnel - stopped their argument to stare at them as they walked by. Before they could step through the skull, one of the cultists shouted at them.

“You can’t go in there, outsider!”

Krieg and the others turned to face whoever spoke.

A man heavily disfigured by burns across his body stepped to the forefront of the crowd. One of his arms was nothing more than a shriveled stump, a wicked, jagged blade of black stone attached to the end of it by a harness, and he wore the painted faceplate of a human skull over his own. “Only the chosen may walk the path to our Mother’s nest.”

“And what happens if we do anyways?” Axton shouted back at him.

“You’ll be burned away by the Firehawk’s holy flame. She doesn’t easily tolerate trespassers or unwanted visitors. Only those wishing to seek the Firehawk and make an offering at her shrine are allowed to pass, and even then only to the shrine and no further.”

The other guy was practically _ giddy _ as he listened to the cultist. The thought of going through some kind of trial by fire to find out whatever this Firehawk _was_ was right up his alley. The fire under his own skin was boiling and rolling with pent up energy, and he had no where to direct it. 

A second later, he realized the absurdity of the situation: what were they even doing? They were there to find a Raider contact, not chase some Bloodshots up a mountain.

But why _ were _the Bloodshots so hellbent on getting to this Firehawk? The vault hunters quickly exchanged a few words amongst each other, apparently having the same thoughts he did. After a moment, they decided that whatever the Bloodshots were after was probably important enough to warrant trying to prevent them from reaching it. They didn’t even know if the Firehawk was an actual living being the cultists had deified, if it was a random object, or even some kind of weapon. For all they knew, the Firehawk could’ve just been some animal heavily mutated by slag; it wouldn’t be the first time Krieg had run into territorial animals with a weird ability to use and channel fire. Hell, it could’ve just been some poor sod like himself that decided their own mutations made them a god. 

There was something about the cave that he couldn’t put his finger on, though. It was almost like the pull he felt when Maya used her phaselock. He wasn’t sure how, but there was something in the cave he needed to see, something in there making the fire under his skin flare wildly. The others didn’t seem to feel it, but there was something in Maya’s face, something in the way she stared restlessly, almost unseeing, through the skull, that told him she could feel it, too. 

Maya jerked her head towards the cave. “C’mon, my gut is telling me there’s something in there.” 

The burned cultist shouted after them as they walked through the skull, giving them one last warning. 

The tunnel leading to the Firehawk’s lair was different from the path up the mountain; the walls were coated in thick layers of ice, save for random spots where the ice was completely melted away and replaced with massive scorch marks. Like the first tunnel leading into the canyon, there were lanterns set at intervals, but the fire in them seemed to be just floating inside without any visible fuel keeping them going. Unlike the other tunnels, this one was littered with burnt corpses, both human and animal. Most of them were old and covered in frost, but many were still smoking, leaving a rancid stench that had some of the vault hunters gagging.

At one point, they came upon a wide crack in the floor of the tunnel with a rickety old bridge made of loose scrap spanning the gap. The bottom of the pit was filled with long metal spikes and more of the weird fire that filled the lanterns. They decided to go across one at a time. Gaige and Maya went first, followed by Axton and Zer0 - Krieg had no idea when they reappeared, they were just suddenly _ there _ \- and Salvador and Krieg went last. Maya kept her arm partially raised as everyone crossed in case the bridge gave out and they fell into the pit.

It was difficult for him to balance as he crossed the bridge. Krieg could feel the heat of the fire rising up, and though he wasn’t worried about being burned, he didn’t want to get any closer to the spikes. The other guy gripped the rails of the bridge like his life depended on it and walked about as slowly as he could, carefully testing his footing on the parts that looked unstable. One of his feet went through the bottom as he was trying to step off onto the other side, and he let out a loud shout as his other leg buckled and he stumbled forward. The others jumped to catch him, but Krieg managed to pull himself away from the edge. Salvador helped him back to his feet, and they continued through the tunnel. 

The tunnel opened back up to the outside, and they found themselves in a large cleared space on a cliff overlooking the canyon. To the right, they could see all of Frostburn and the mountains surrounding it, and to the left was a stone altar placed in front of a towering metal effigy shaped like a phoenix. The effigy was flanked by dozens of skulls from all sorts of creatures mounted on pikes, all of them stained red and painted with looping flame designs. Two long strips of reddish brown cloth hung on either side of the effigy, both with the same round bird symbol on them, and countless offerings lay scattered on the altar and the ground around the altar. 

The offerings ranged from food to dishes to simple crafts to disemboweled animals and everything in between, but the most common offering seemed to be masks carved from bone, not unlike the one the burnt cultist had worn. No two were the same, and not all of them were made from human skulls, or even skulls in general, but all of them had the same general design: a faceplate that covered the eyes and nose, stained red, and covered in scorch marks. There were also a lot of pendants carved with varying quality into the round bird symbol, as well as various knives and blades made from obsidian that resembled the burnt cultist’s arm. 

Ahead of them, to the right of the altar, was another tunnel. This one was different from the others in that there were several traps in place set to spew fire at them from various angles, and they soon learned to be careful so as not to accidentally run through them. It was also much shorter than the previous one, but continuously veered to the left back into the mountain, and it wasn’t long before they could hear the sounds of a fight further ahead. 

The vault hunters readied their guns - or in Krieg and Zer0’s cases, their axe and sword - as they came into a wide open room filled with the burnt corpses of Bloodshots. The stench of burning flesh was so much worse than before, and even Krieg wrinkled his nose at it. At the other side of the room was a large archway, and through the arch was a massive cavern with a metal platform dominating the center. 

_ What the hell is with this place? This doesn’t look like the nest of some animal, it looks like someone lives here. _

Krieg followed the others up the ramp to the metal platform and found themselves surrounded by computers and monitors, all of them displaying images from various sections of the path they took through the tunnels.

“What the fuck is all this?” Salvador said loudly, turning around as he took everything in. 

Zer0 flashed an exclamation point “Something is not right/ We should not be here. There is/ Something among us.” They said as they held their sword at the ready, then flickered and disappeared. 

The other guy frantically looked around the cavern while the others started moving around the cavern to check it out. Zer0 was right, something _ was _in the cavern with them, but Krieg couldn’t pinpoint where it was. He kept hearing a shrill ringing sound in his ears, kept seeing something move just out of the corner of his eye, but whenever he turned to see what it was, there was nothing there. 

“Wait!” Maya shouted at the others. “Wait, hold on, this… I don’t know how, but there’s something moving around us. I don’t know how or why, but it feels- it- it feels-Stay on your guard.”

Krieg stopped to face her as she said that and met her gaze, and some recognition passed between them. She could sense it, and she could tell he could sense it, too. 

Gaige walked over to the monitors. “What the fuck are you _ talking _about? This place is empty, ‘sides for all the bodies. Looks like whoever lives in here left in a hurry.”

“Yeah, I gotta agree with her.” Axton added as he joined her.

How could they not feel it? A deep sense of unease built up in Krieg’s stomach as the feeling only got stronger. 

Maya turned sharply and pointed her gun at a space near the center of the platform. “Guys, _ guys, _listen to me, we need to-”

She was cut off as a bright flash lit the cavern up, followed immediately by the buzzing Krieg had been hearing multiplied by _ a lot. _

Suddenly, in the center of the platform, the silhouette of a person appeared to step out of a rift in the air, outlined in a strange purple glow as they lifted their left arm out towards where Krieg and Maya were standing, a pair of massive hawk wings wreathed in flame spreading out behind them. 

A ball of fire shot out of the hand reaching towards them, and Krieg immediately moved in front of Maya to intercept it. Before it could hit him, she raised her own arm and caught the fireball in mid air. She moved her arm and tossed the ball of fire out to the side and released it, causing it to fly into the stone wall of the cavern. 

The glow quickly subsided as the figure, a woman with flaming red hair and glowing blue tattoos running down her arm, lowered herself so she was standing on the platform. 

Krieg’s eyes went wide, the same disbelief he felt back at the train station replacing some of the terror that had started to grip him. 

_ A siren… The Firehawk is a _siren.

As she touched down, she jerked her chin up in greeting. “‘Sup.” She said.

With another flash of light, the glow completely disappeared, as did the wings, and the red siren collapsed to the floor. 

* * *

Maya rushed over to the red siren. 

Gaige and Axton, who had been watching the monitors, were staring dumbfounded, as was Salvador, who had been checking out one of the other platforms connecting to the main center one. 

When Maya dropped to her knees next to the woman, Zer0 reappeared and joined her, keeping their sword pointed towards the red siren. The other guy, however, backed up a few steps. Whatever it was that he and Maya sensed in the cavern had come from this siren, though he had no idea what it was she’d done. Clearly she had some kind of fire affinity, if the wings, the title, and the fireball she shot at them were any indication, but what about how she suddenly appeared out of nowhere? 

_ Wait, she shot a fireball at us. She shot it at Maya, and you moved in front of her. _

The other guy ignored him.

Krieg tried to discern what it was that compelled him to do such a thing, but the only thing he could feel from the other guy was unease, like he was trying to look away but couldn’t make himself. It almost felt like there was something there he should be seeing, something just outside his reach, an answer fleeting beyond his grasp like a whisper on the wind. 

The red siren came to moments later. Slowly, she got her hands underneath her and pushed herself up into a seated position. 

“Yo, hey, what the _ fuck _was that?” Gaige asked. Axton and Salvador both agreeing as they mirrored her confusion. 

The red siren was breathing quite heavily, and now that she wasn’t covered in that purple glow, Krieg could see she looked like she’d been fighting; a large bruise was forming around one of her eyes, blood dripped from her nose and several cuts - an especially nasty one in particular along her right shoulder that had gone through the jacket she wore - and was covered in a mix of splattered dirt and blood. 

“Hey, how ya doin’?” She sounded as exhausted as she looked. “Name’s Lilith, though the locals know me as the Firehawk.”

“I’m- you- you- you’re a-” Maya stumbled over her words as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. 

The red siren Lilith let out a single laugh as she exhaled, then winced and sucked in a breath as she gripped her side. “Yeah. If it wasn't obvious, I’m a siren, I _know_. Listen, I’d love to sit and chat, but the Bloodshots have been up my ass for way too long now. I work with the Raiders, and I’m just gonna assume that’s why you’re here, because why the hell _else_ would you be, so gimme a hand here so we can fry these assholes and get down to business, yeah?”

Zer0 flashed an :o and relaxed, lowering their sword. Gaige, Salvador, and Axton all looked between each other with confused expressions. Salvador shrugged and went back to looking around the cavern, this time with a determined expression as he held his own gun at the ready.

Maya immediately unzipped and pulled her jacket off, then placed it in her storage. 

“There’s a strongbox up in- hey, what are you-” Lilith began, but was cut off as Maya reached her left arm towards her.

“I can heal you,” she said. “It won’t take very long.”

Lilith was taken aback. “Oh, I, uh, yeah, I guess that could work, I was just gonna use some eridium.”

Maya pulled back and lowered her arm, the glow in her tattoos fading a bit “You… what? Use eridium, what do you mean?”

“What, you mean you never…?”

“I… don’t really know what you’re talking about, so… no?”

Lilith dropped her head down and sighed. “I’ll just show you, then. There’s a strongbox up over there someplace-” she pointed towards the platform Salvador was on, “-That’s got some in it, should be unlocked, could you bring it here?”

A flash of heat had gone through Krieg when she mentioned eridium, and when she said there was some _ in the room, _he felt like he might pass out. He couldn’t feel his fingers, or even his hands, his legs felt like they were made of lead, and his mouth went dry. His head was full of cotton, and the voices in his ear were screaming, shouting at him to get away and leave before it was too late. 

** _You know what happened the last time you misbehaved, don’t you, War? We don’t want a repeat of last time._ **

The other guy watched as Maya stood and walked up to the platform Salvador was on. Soon, she returned with a softball sized rock in one hand. 

Krieg’s vision started to go dark around the edges when he saw the rock. Even though he was a good distance away from it, he could still feel something in his blood reacting to it. His breathing sped up and he felt lightheaded, but he couldn’t look away. He wanted to turn around and run, but couldn’t make his legs move. Every nerve in his body was numb, save for the burning sensation in the scarring on his arm and the head-pounding ache in his eye. 

When Lilith took the hunk of eridium, she held it close to her and started glowing like she had when she appeared, as did the rock. The glow grew in strength until it was nearly blinding, yet he still couldn’t look away. 

He thought he could hear someone say his name, but everything was reduced to a low buzzing as the rush of blood in his ears drowned everything else out. Why couldn’t he run like he had earlier?

After a moment, the glow subsided, and Lilith was left with a handful of gravel that fell through her fingers onto the floor. The bruise on her face seemed to have healed somewhat, though it was still a sickly green color, and most of the cuts were healed. 

The buzzing in his ears died and his vision started to clear, but the panic and dread continued to knot his guts.

He wasn’t entirely certain what happened afterwards; everything blurred together in a haze of white noise and the occasional dull, throbbing pain in his skull. There was shouting, he could tell that much, and… gunfire? A series of loud popping sounds followed by screams, and then silence. It was hard to hear over one voice in particular that was constantly screaming somewhere just behind him. 

At one point, the glow returned with the panic and sweating. When it was gone again, it was replaced by a sudden, intense force pulling on him. His vision momentarily went black, then purple, and then he felt like he was being stretched and yanked by his head through a very small hole. All around him was the same purple glow that had surrounded Lilith, and beyond it was a thick darkness that seemed simultaneously intangible yet corporeal. 

Most of all, though, it _ hurt. _It wasn’t just the discomfort he felt when he was around slag and eridium, it was a physical, searing pain that shot up his right arm and into his eye, it made his head feel as if it were being compressed until it was ready to burst.

And then it was gone.

All at once, the weird space disappeared and he was in a cave again, and everything was clear. He was sitting on the stone floor and the air was cold.

_ What just happened? How did we get here? _

The other guy stumbled as he got to his feet and looked around. The vault hunters all looked just as confused as he did, but he was the only one who had been sitting.

A voice behind him caught his attention.

“Ah, shit, I just moved you, like, ten feet, didn’t I?”

Turning around, he realized he was standing on a ledge overlooking the metal platforms in the cavern, and down on the center platform was Lilith looking cross with her hands on her hips. 

Lilith sighed and smacked her forehead with the palm of a hand. “Sorry, I’m still getting used to this. Listen, this isn’t really a good place to talk, so I’ll meet you guys back at Sanctuary, ok?”

Maya walked over to the edge of the ledge and called down to her. “Do you think those cultist guys will give us trouble if we try to leave? They gave us a lot of shit when we got here.”

“Uhhhh… No? Where you’re standing now leads to one of my escape routes, so you _ should _be able to completely bypass them and get back out of here with no trouble. Good luck out there.” With another flash of disorienting, uncomfortable light, Lilith was gone. 

The others talked amongst each other as they went through the tunnel, going on about the siren Lilith and what they all thought of her, but Krieg was having trouble focusing on what they all were saying. He was still shaken by what happened with the gun Zer0 found and the dream in the technical afterwards, and to have such a visceral reaction to… whatever that was in the cave left both him and the other guy feeling out of it. He wanted to curl into a ball and hide in a corner until his blood boiled over and the fire consumed what was left, wanted to close his eyes and sleep until the pins and needles in the scarring on his forearm went away. 

Lilith was right, they didn’t run into any more of the cultists until they reached the end of the escape tunnel, emerging from a space hidden between the pillars of ice lining the pond they passed by earlier. They hurried back through the first tunnel back out to the encampment where they left the tunnel, where the bloody cultist - who was now bandaged up and significantly less bloody - thanked them for getting the message to Clayton and led them back to the makeshift garage. He bid them all goodbye with a nod.

The other guy stored his axe away and climbed up into the turret, where he stayed until they reached the gates of Sanctuary.

* * *

Things were oddly quiet when they returned, but there was a tension to the stillness. Krieg was pretty sure he knew why - Roland, the leader of the Raiders, had been captured by Bloodshots - but with everything that had happened since they left, he hadn’t been entirely present enough to pay attention to the specifics, let alone what the others - and by extension he - were supposed to be doing. 

As they parked the technical and started to trek across the bridge, Axton called in to let someone know that they had all returned.

Krieg was glad to be back, even if the other guy still had some excess energy he wanted to burn, especially with the day finally starting to come to a close; the sky was slowly getting darker, and the air was getting colder. He was thankful that he'd been accepted into Sanctuary for what felt like the hundredth time.

Sanctuary was still guarded, raiders still patrolled the streets, citizens still went about their lives, but everyone seemed on edge. There was less general commotion, and as they neared the center of town, Krieg realized it was because there wasn't a constant stream of raiders hurrying to and from the Crimson HQ and the barracks. 

He and the others found the mechanic Scooter kneeling over the top of a piece of pillar-shaped tech coming out of the ground in the plaza. Scooter had a big red toolbox open on the ground and various tools scattered around him. As they drew closer, Krieg saw that he looked frustrated, almost exhausted, like he'd been at whatever he was doing for a while and was getting sick of it.

Gaige ran ahead of the group towards the mechanic.

"Hey, Scoots!" She shouted as she ran.

Scooter looked up and did a double take, first looking annoyed, then surprised, then said "Oh, heeey lil' missy! Y'all're back already?" as he set something down.

Gaige stopped on the other side of the tech sticking out of the ground and squatted down with her elbows on her knees. "Yeah, we’ve been driving around _ all day. _What’s this thing?” She pointed to the pillar.

The other guy followed the others as they joined Gaige and Scooter. 

“Oh, this?” Scooter wiped his face with the back of a hand. “Dunno if you heard, but Sanctuary’s right on top of an old Dahl mining ship, but the damned thing’s supposed to be able to, like, fly around n’ shit. Only problem is it ain’t worked worth a skag’s breakfast since we got here.”

“So you’re trying to fix it?” Axton asked.

“Nah! I mean, _ yeah, _but like. Me n’ my sister n’ my mamma tried fixin’ ‘er up a while back, Roland thought it’d make a good plan B if we could git’er up and flyin’ in case shit went south, y’know?”

The other guy frowned and fidgeted. Krieg could tell he didn’t like the thought of the entire city lifting up out of the ground and floating through the air, not that he could blame him. Ships like that were usually built pretty sturdy to accommodate all the extra weight from mining, but an entire city full of people? Jesus God, was that really a good idea?

Salvador and Maya joined Gaige, squatting and kneeling next to her to inspect the pillar. “Is that what you’re doin’ now? Don’t look like you’ve got very far, mi amigo.” Salvador poked at the pillar, only to recoil as something sparked and shocked his hand.

Scooter sat back and leaned on an arm, taking a deep breath. “Roland said if he ever got killed, or captured, or whatever, to get Sanctuary up and runnin’. Well, I tried plugin’ ‘er in a couple hours ago, but it didn’t work! Been tryna figure out why, is all. I _ know _I can get this bad chicken to work, just gotta mess with it a little.”

Gaige perked up when he said that. “Do you… want some help?”

Scooter gave a short laugh. “Aha! Alright, yeah, sure! Been at it a while, guess I could use some more hands, maybe you can figure it out.” He sat back up and gathered his tools into a line.

Maya stood. “Right, well, we still need to head to the HQ and talk to, um… we still need to report in.”

“Yeah, yeah, totally, I’ll just hang out out here while you guys do that, and I’ll meet you back at the house later, yeah?” Gaige was already engrossed in inspecting the tech pillar. 

“Well… ok, I guess. See you later.” Maya looked around at the others, then turned to continue on to the Crimson HQ. Krieg and the others, minus Gaige, followed suit. 

“See ya, nerd.” Axton called back at her as he walked by her. 

Behind him, Krieg could hear Gaige yell “Whatever!” 

Crimson HQ was still just as guarded as before, but the raiders at the door let them in with greeting and a nod to the vault hunters. To Krieg, one of them did a double take and opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but decided against it and went back to her own business. The other guy glared and looked her in the eye as he passed, but the raider wouldn’t look back.

_ Take it easy, man, remember who the real enemy is. _

The other guy huffed, grumbled, and made a face as he went up the stairs. 

In the war room, they found Lilith pacing while another woman - the same one with short brown hair and the stressed face he’d seen the other day when he and Maya went to talk to commander Roland - was sitting cross-legged at the table. The brown-haired woman was going on about something, but was completely oblivious to the fact that Krieg and the vault hunters were piling in, continuing her long rant even when Lilith stopped paying attention. 

Now that his head was more or less clear, and they weren’t in the middle of a fight, Krieg was able to get a better look at Lilith. Like Maya, she was clearly a pretty strong person, but Lilith had more bulk to her. For someone who lived on Pandora, she was weirdly pale, making the blue of her tattoos stand out all the more. What most caught his attention was her eyes, a bright yellow that almost seemed to burn and flicker in their sockets. It was kind of creepy, if he was honest. 

The woman next to her, on the other hand, looked like she’d spent her fair share of time out under the Pandoran sun and then some; she had an old sunburn and the face of someone who squinted for a living, creased around the edges and corners, but taking in and studying everything intently. She looked like she’d chopped her hair off with a knife, or at least without the use of a mirror, judging from how uneven and unkempt it was. The way she went on and on in such a anxious pitch put the other guy’s nerves on the fritz, he wanted to sidle out of the room and forget he ever saw or heard her. 

“Nice to see you guys made it in one piece.” Lilith stopped pacing on the far side of the table.

The other woman suddenly stopped to turn and look at them, jumping and shouting in surprise when she did. “How long have you all been there?” She yelled. “Lilith, how long have they been there?”

“We just got here?” Axton sounded as surprised as the woman did. 

Lilith leaned forward on the table, completely ignoring the woman. “I’m gonna take a guess and say you guys are the vault hunters from the southern shelf.”

The vault hunters stood around the table, while the other guy leaned against the wall with the door to his left like he had the last time he was there, crossing his arms as he watched. 

“That’s right.” Maya confirmed. “And I’m assuming you’re the “unidentified contact” we were sent to find?”

“You got it. Since you’re asking that, Roland must not have told you about me.”

“Yeah, he didn’t say jack shit about the Raiders already having a siren on their side.” Axton said, sounding defensive.

“Hey!” Salvador lightly smacked the back of a hand against his shoulder. “Probably for the same reason Maya doesn’t want everyone knowing about her.”

Lilith looked relieved to hear that. “Good. I trusted Roland to not tell anyone, but I wasn’t sure if he’d tell you-” she looked pointedly as Maya, “-Or not, since you’re _ also _a siren.”

The woman, who at that point had a panicked expression on her face, spoke up. “_ Lilith! _ Who _ are _ these- these- these _ people, _ and _ why _didn’t you tell me they were coming?”

Lilith sighed and dropped her head down. “I didn’t know how long they’d take, ok? Damn, gimme a break.” She stood up straight and gestured to the woman. “This is Tannis, she’s a… what did you call it?”

The woman, Tannis, huffed. “Really, Lilith, you ought to know this well by now.” She faced the vault hunters, but didn’t seem to be looking at any of them directly. “My name is Dr. Patricia Tannis, if you _ must _ know. I am an archaeologist who specializes in Eridian technology, artifacts, ruins - _ anything _relating to the ancient Eridians, really - as well as sirentology.”

“Wait, wait, you’re an expert on _ scientology?” _Axton asked.

Dr. Tannis recoiled in horror. “Absolutely _ not! _ I said _ sirentology, not scientology!” _

“Then what the fuck is “sirentology?” 

“The study of sirens, of course, what _ else _would it be!?” She gasped, shocked at his ignorance. 

“Anyways!” Lilith interrupted their dispute. “Tannis helped us find a vault a few years ago, and now she’s helping us try to find the one Hyperion is after.”

“That is a very poor explanation of everything I do around here, but I suppose it will suffice for the time being.” Dr. Tannis said. 

Lilith ignored her comment and gestured to the others. “Tannis, these are the vault hunters my guys out on the shelf spotted, the ones who managed to walk away from the Hyperion train crash. Um…” She curled the hand she held outstretched towards them into a fist. “I don’t think I got any of your names, actually.”

Salvador reached a hand across the table to shake Lilith’s, which she accepted. “Salvador Belmonte.” He then tried to shake Dr. Tannis’ hand, but she recoiled and declined.

“Wait, I think I’ve heard of you.” Lilith squinted at Salvador and ran a hand through her hair. “You’re, ahhh… aha! Zed’s buddy, right? From way up north?”

“That’s right!” Krieg couldn’t see his face, but he was sure Salvador was positively beaming. “We go way back, me and him.”

Lilith shook a finger at him. “I’ve heard the stories. I’m looking forward to working with you, Zed used to talk about his time up there all the time, back when… we… weren’t trying to fight a war with Hyperion and every other asshole on Pandora.”

“Myself as well, Firehawk.”

The other three introduced themselves, with Axton trying to pull a line on Lilith in the process, resulting in a single stern “Watch it.”

“What about that kid that was with you earlier? She a vault hunter, too?” Lilith asked when they were done.

“Oh, yeah.” Maya said. “That’s Gaige. She’s outside helping Scooter right now.”

“Nice.” Lilith nodded. “And what's your name, big guy?” She leaned around the others to get a look at Krieg.

The others turned to follow her line of sight.

“Oh, that’s-” Salvador started.

“Krieg.” The other guy growled, startling everyone in the room, including Krieg himself.

Lilith was the only one not taken off guard, instead looking at him with what he assumed was either vague approval or amusement. He _ really _hoped it was the former. Dr. Tannis, on the other hand, did a double take and eyed him with interest, much to the other guy's discomfort.

“Good to have you with us.” Lilith said, then turned her attention back to Maya. “Ok then, now that we all know who each other is, it’s time we got down to business: the Crimson Raiders are in deep shit, and we’re only gonna go deeper if we can’t get Roland back.”

“Do you have any idea where they could be keeping him?” Maya asked. 

Lilith rubbed the back of her neck and eyed the map on the table. “Eugh, well-”

“I predict there is an 87% chance,” Dr. Tannis interrupted her, raising a hand. “That he is being kept inside the Dahl dam, where the Bloodshots are most concentrated. It is heavily guarded, and Flamesteak knows that the Crimson Raiders have never mounted an assault on it, therefore he believes that he and his followers are safe inside.”

Salvador leaned forward on the table. “Just because you’ve never tried to bust his doors down doesn’t mean you _ can’t. _

“Trust me, we know.” Lilith said. “But we’ve been fighting this war on two fronts for years now, the Raiders couldn’t afford to abandon our defense against Hyperion long enough to take out the Bloodshots. Plus, they would’ve had to do it without me there to back them up, and that would’ve just caused even more casualties for us in the end.”

Zer0 tilted their head and displayed something Krieg couldn’t see. “Why?”

Lilith made a long, non-committal grunting noise. “Hyperion thinks I’m dead. They were causing us a lotta grief, trying to come after me and all, so I, uhhhh, decided to fake my death. If Jack finds out I’m not actually dead, then, well… it won’t be good.”

The other guy scowled and mumbled.

“So then what have you been doing in the meantime? Just hanging out in a cave, being a god to a bunch of half frozen assholes?” Axton asked.

“I’ve been _trying_ to keep the Bloodshots off Roland’s ass, tough guy.” She responded sharply. “Flamesteak doesn’t know it’s me killing his guys, but he knows he can’t ignore me, so when the Children decided the mysterious thing burning them alive was God, it started a feud between them and the Bloodshots. I mean, it wasn’t really something I was _ trying _to do, but it keeps Flamesteak’s attention diverted.”

“That can’t work forever, though.” Axton pointed out. “Eventually, one side is gonna overwhelm the other.”

“Yeah, I know, but it was the best we could do. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we don’t exactly have the numbers or support to fight both at once, so if there’s something I can do to get us an upper hand, I’m gonna do it.”

Both of them looked at each other for a tense few seconds before Axton relented with a sigh. “Yeah, I get it.” 

“Ok, so how do we get Roland out of the dam?” Maya asked, trying to get everyone back on track. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had a pretty long day, so I’d like to figure this out as soon as possible so I can go get some dinner and sleep.”

She had a point. A door on the opposite side of the room was ajar, and Krieg could see the clouds and sky turning pink and orange through it.

After a few seconds of watching a cloud dissipate, Krieg realized he had missed what the others were saying. The other guy blinked in surprise when Salvador reached up to pat his shoulder as he walked through the doorway next to Krieg. “C’mon, big guy.”

The other guy pulled away from the wall and glanced back at everyone else at the table, still engrossed in conversation, then followed Salvador.

“She’s got the right idea.” He said as he descended the stairs. “I could use somethin’ to eat, and I bet you could, too.”

The other guy made a guttural _ humm _sound. “Boil my guts and grind the cartilage, the fire demands flesh.” He said, to which Salvador let out a bark of laughter.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Salvador pulled the door to the HQ open and led Krieg through the streets. Eventually, he stopped outside a building near the bar from the other day.

He waited and considered the door for a moment before knocking, and when there wasn’t an answer, he tried the door. It opened with a click, and Salvador waved for Krieg to follow him.

Inside was dark, but Salvador seemed to know where he was going. They went up some stairs, down a hallway, and out another door onto a balcony. From there, they climbed up onto the roof, then walked along until they came to a makeshift bridge between the roof and another made from several planks of wood. On the other side was a flat area tucked into a little corner between the bar and another taller building. A few chairs sat with a foldable plastic table between them. From the roof, Krieg could see over the walls of Sanctuary to the south and east.

Salvador rearranged the chairs so that three of them surrounded the table, but could still face the mountains around them, and told Krieg to take a seat and wait.

The other guy took the one on far right so he could still see the other two on his left. Salvador took the one in the middle and opened up his echo to dig through his storage, chatting idly as he did.

Before long, Krieg could hear someone else making their way across the roof, and when the other guy looked over, he saw Dr. Blanco with a pair of bags in his hands. 

Salvador greeted him with an enthusiastic “Heeey!” when he saw the doctor, kicking the chair to his left out a bit as he did. The other guy grumbled and watched Dr. Blanco, but was otherwise quiet as he set the bags down on the table.

From his echo, Salvador produced a pack of cheap beer, the bottles clinking loudly in the case as he set it next to the bags and got to work helping the doctor pull several disposable food containers out, as well as a few utensils and some paper plates. When everything was out, Salvador opened one of the containers stabbed at whatever was in it with a plastic fork. 

“Ah, Zed, mi amigo, you never let me down, bless you.” He said.

As the three of them passed the containers around - taking turns dishing what they wanted onto the paper plates - Salvador switched over to Spanish and gave the doctor a detailed rundown of what they did since they left. Much to Krieg’s relief, he left out the part with the gun. 

Salvador went quiet when he got to the part where they met Lilith. Krieg couldn’t see him very well with his mask pushed up the way it was, but it sounded like he wasn’t sure if it was something he should be talking about.

Dr. Blanco eventually beat him to it. “Ye met Lilith, didja?”

Salvador let out a sigh of relief. “You know her?”

There was a _ crack _as one of them opened one of the beers. “Yep.” The doctor said. There was a short pause before he spoke again. “She was one of the hunters that opened the vault with Roland.”

“Who were the others?” Salvador asked.

“There were four in total - well, five, I guess, if you count the bird - there was Roland Fitzroy, a damned firebrand fresh out of the Crimson Lance and lookin’ for a purpose, then there was Lilith, lookin’ for somethin’ to do with sirens, I think. I think she was also just lookin’ for a place to be without havin’ to worry about gettin’ harassed for bein’ a siren, if you ask me. Then there’s Mordecai Reyes and his bird, Bloodwing. The two a’them were damn near inseparable, couldn’t talk to the man without havin’ to risk gettin’ pecked.”

Mordecai Reyes? Krieg had no idea why, but the name sounded almost familiar. At least, he _ thought _it sounded familiar. Maybe he’d met him before? The other guy took a drink of the warm beer as Krieg tried to figure it out.

“He was runnin’ from the law on Artemis, on account of the fact that bird of his is apparently endangered, or somethin’ like that. He seemed to think the world owed him somethin’, but I couldn’t tell ye what or why.”

Could that be why Krieg recognized the name? If he stole an endangered animal and ran off with it, he could understand how he might have heard the name being circulated, but was that it? He wasn’t sure.

“He bounce or something after they opened that vault?” Salvador asked.

“Nah, he’s part of the Raiders, he just stays out in the tundra for the most part. He does a lot of recon, mostly, keeps an eye on the trains that pass by that neck of the woods. Kinda like Lilith, 'cept he doesn't have to hide the fact he's alive”

_ I wonder if the Hyperion train passed by him… _

“So who’s the fourth?”

Dr. Blanco _ hmm’ _d for a moment. “His name’s James Burke, but he goes by Brick. No idea why, but it suits him pretty well.”

“And what’s he do for the Raiders?”

“Well, it’s… it’s pretty complicated. As far as he and the others are concerned, he ain’t a raider. Not anymore, at least.”

“What, he die or something? Go bandit?”

“Pretty much. For a while, the Raiders were set up at a place called New Haven, waaay up to the northeast.”

Salvador let out a small gasp. “Oh, don’t tell me he betrayed you guys!”

“No! No, nothing like that; Brick’s as loyal as they come. It was a guy named Shep Sanders that sold us out to Hyperion. Brick’s been known to go to some real extremes whenever he gets mad, it ain’t uncommon for him to go on a rampage if the mood strikes him, but when he found Shep after Hyperion burned down New Haven… well, he and Roland had a bit of a fight. I dunno what got said between ‘em - not my business, anyhow - but on his way out, Brick said somethin’ ‘bout how if everyone was gonna treat him like a bandit, then that’s what he’d be.”

“Ah, I see.” Salvador’s tone changed to something somber. “So where’s he now?”

“He’s still out west, I think. Or maybe it’s north? Ah, it doesn’t matter. He made a bandit clan of his own from whoever was left after the Raiders left and Hyperion moved in, calls himself the Slab King.”

_ The Slab King? Wait, I think I know that name, actually. _

It was hazy, but Krieg could swear he’d heard of the Slab King before. Back from when he and the other guy had escaped and were just trying to get away. Not a lot from their early days out on Pandora was clear; it was mostly a fog of feeling and flashes of images, so there wasn’t a lot he could piece together. There was something there, though, he could feel it.

The other guy finished what he’d claimed from the containers. He dropped his fork on the plate and leaned back in the chair, slinging one arm over the back while the other held his half-empty beer. 

“Damn, sounds pretty fuckin’ rough.” Salvador said. “You ever heard of this guy, Krieg?”

The other guy turned his head towards Salvador. He still couldn’t see either of them very well, but he could feel them looking at him. Exhaling forcefully through his nose, he dropped his head back. “The meat slabs are full of bloody cuts, a precarious little dance with the shadow of _ death _ .” He pulled his head back up and took another drink. “When the flies come out to play, the maestro sings and swings and _ crushes _ until the bones are _ dust _ and the blood is as _ water _.” With another drink, the beer was empty, and he leaned forward to grab another.

Krieg heard Blanco give a small _ huh. _“Well, sounds like you’ve met the slabs themselves, at the very least.”

The other guy gave a gravelly _h_ _ rmh _as he uncapped the bottle. 

“Anyways,” Blanco continued, “From what I hear, they’ve got a pretty nasty rivalry with some of the other bandit gangs out there. Fight with Hyperion a lot, too.”

“Sounds like he’s still puttin’ up a good fight, if he’s doing all that.”

“Like I said, he’s as loyal as they come. His heart’s still in the right place, even if he don't really get on with the Raiders anymore.”

Krieg listened to them chat some more as he leaned back again. The other guy had positioned himself so that he could see part of the sky without having to pull his mask down, and watched the clouds drift by. It wasn’t long before the day caught up with him and the fire started to die down, the events of the day seeping into his bones like a chill.

Salvador and Blanco moved on to other topics, occasionally asking Krieg if he knew about certain people, events, places, and the like, sometimes asking what he thought. The other guy answered most of the time, but eventually he and Krieg began to tune them out. 

He focused instead on the way the sun seemed to be melting as it sunk lower and lower, red and bulbous, shimmering as it bled out, the encroaching darkness leeching all the color, all the warmth, all the life from it. The stars began to flicker into being, little embers flanking a dying fire, and for a moment Krieg thought there was something to be said about it, only the words and the reason why eluded him. He was left with only the faint whispering from someone he didn’t know - low, rough, and soothing - but soon even that faded into the vast expanse of space before him until the only thing left was silence. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I was already a pretty good ways through this chapter when the Krieg DLC dropped, so of course I had to take a break and play it before doing literally anything else. Speaking of, what did you guys think of it? I personally didn't expect much, so what we got was a nice surprise, though I admit it did leave a lot to be desired. That being said, I will not be making any major changes to the backstory I came up with for Krieg, though I will probably add in a few details just for extra flavor and to compliment what I already have
> 
> Also, I've been considering renaming the fic to something else, but I don't really know what I'd change it to. Maybe once I get closer to the end, I'll have a better idea :p


End file.
